News

Can my business switch water supplier in England and Wales?

Author: Graham Mann,  Water Audit Expert

There is high expectation that businesses in England and Wales will be able to Switch Water Supplier in England and Wales following the second reading of the water bill in the House of Commons recently, the main focus of the bill is a total reform of the water industry, what shape this will take is still very much up for grabs, hopefully this will encourage new water licenced providers into the market. Customers will then be in a position to shop around for the best deal and enjoy discounts on water and waste water charges.

For one we don’t doubt very much that service levels will improve substantially, certainly we have seen service levels drop massively with the large well established water companies.

In Scotland some of the new entrant licenced providers have little or no knowledge of the water industry and we have seen substantial overcharges, poor response to account queries with one of the new entrants even having a customer contact and customer services dealt with via a mobile phone, the client having left several message for a call back and no reply, the result for the client was a £ 20,000 overcharge!

In our opinion when making an application to become a new water licenced provider not only should your business have solid financial support but also demonstrate a high level of technical ability and experience in the water industry which is not the case at the moment and is a very worrying situation, particularly in Scotland as we have seen. We feel it is only a matter of time until one or two of these companies goes to the wall and what then? 100’s of customers left high and dry.

Our advise is simple, seek the assistance of a water expert prior to switching as it is very likely this discount offered and the service level may not be up to the mark!