Why is it important?

Even before the economic impact of Covid-19, 1 in 10 households in England and Wales told us that they struggle to afford their water bill.

Water companies do offer some help through social tariffs, but there are two key problems with these tariffs:

1. 1. A patchwork of support: while customers qualify for the tariff in some parts of England or Wales, they wouldn’t qualify in others. This level of support offered also varies by region.
   2. Lack of funding: There isn’t enough money to help everyone who need it. Under-25s, over-75s, Black-Caribbean and minority ethnic groups are most at risk of missing out on financial support with bills.

We want to drive change to create a fairer system that can properly help everyone who struggles to pay their bills.

To deliver our campaign, we will:

• • Work with Governments to introduce changes recommended by the CCW Water Affordability Review to improve support schemes for customers. We will do this by engaging with MPs and MSs to add their support to our campaign.
  • Get other consumer champions to join us in our call for change.
  • Speak out in the media to call for change.

As a result, we want to see:

• • The number of customers saying they can afford their bill increases to 100% by 2030.
  • New social tariff guidance from the governments in England and Wales ends the patchwork of financial support, by 2025.

Why is it important?

Some water consumers are missing out on our free service, which can help them solve their complaint against their water or sewerage provider.

If consumers don’t pursue their complaint, they could be missing out on a refund, compensation or help getting the water supply or sewerage service problem fixed. That doesn’t seem fair.

Making sure consumers know who their water consumer champion is, is a big step towards consumers getting our help and support when they need it.

To deliver our campaign, we will:

• • Drive impactful policy campaigns to ensure the CCW brand is visible to water consumers.
  • Address systemic issues by sharing best practice to ensure improved outcomes for consumers.
  • Continually improve our own performance in complaint handling and our role in the overall process.
  • Use the media to give a clear voice to water consumer issues and raise awareness of our role.
  • Increase our social media presence to increase the visibility of our service, including using case studies.
  • Increase our visibility to consumers by making sure CCW’s brand and service is clear to consumers on water company websites.
  • Increase our ‘on the ground’ visibility after major water supply incidents, by using mailshots to reach out to those consumers who aren’t online.

As a result, we want to see:

• • Consumer research shows awareness of CCW has increased by 2025.
  • Consumer satisfaction with CCW’s service increases to 80% by 2025.
  • Household and business complaints to CCW decrease by 15% by 2025, as best practice is embedded into companies with our support.

Why is it important?

Most would agree that being flooded by sewage – either inside or outside our home – is one of the worst ways our wastewater company can fail us. It shouldn’t happen, yet during 2019-20 more houses and businesses got flooded with sewage. The rate increased by around 14% compared to the year before.

What’s worse is that if it does happen, the compensation pay-out by wastewater companies doesn’t feel sufficient to cover costs. Added to this, the clean up or help towards an increase in insurance premiums can be slow. If that wasn’t bad enough, some households are flooded more than once. We think this all needs to change.

That is why we want improved service standards for victims of Sewer Flooding, and additional support and compensation for those who are suffering repeated sewer floods.

But it isn’t just about fixing things well if they go wrong, we also want to see the wastewater companies stopping flooding before it happens by better planning and anticipation of where the problems will happen.

To deliver our campaign, we will:

• • Act to get the exceptional weather caveat removed, which means the wastewater company doesn’t need to pay out.
  • Get companies to commit to cleaning up after sewage flooding in all circumstances where their asset is responsible.
  • Get companies to commit to a standard clean-up response time of 2 hour for inside 4 hours for outside sewer flooding.
  • Compensation to be aligned to the real world, for example covering the customer’s insurance excess as a minimum.
  • Act for those being repeatedly flooded to get the problem investigated and sorted, with compensation increased incrementally until the issue is resolved.

As a result, we want to see:

• • More support and compensation for those who suffer repeat sewer flooding by 2022.
  • We want standard clean-up times by 2022 and a review of the compensation offered.
  • We want the exceptional weather ‘get out’ removed from companies’ policies by 2022.

Why is it important?

We all need a bit of extra help now and then. For some of us, this is a short-term need, when we have just come out of hospital or had a new baby. Some of us – those who are disabled or with long-term health problems – need a bit of extra help all the time.
 
That’s why water companies have priority services registers. Once water companies know which of their consumers need extra help (even if it is only for a short time), they can target that help if the water goes off, if information is needed in braille or if you don’t like answering the door to strangers.

Only 42% of consumers are aware of this help, and we don’t think this is enough. We want water companies to make sure all of their customers are aware of their priority services register, and get more people signed up. We will play our part too.

To deliver our campaign, we will:

• • Ask Governments in England and Wales to improve information-sharing across departments and make sure water companies can access official data about who needs help.
  • Use our influence with water companies to sharpen their focus on raising consumer awareness of the help available, and monitor the numbers of customers signed up for extra help.
  • Target our communications to sections of society who would benefit from knowing about the registers, including getting the message to consumers when their water supply goes off unexpectedly. We will make sure our information is accessible to all, including making it available in several languages.
  • Increase our ‘on the ground’ visibility after major water supply incidents, by using mailshots to reach out to those consumers who may need extra help.

As a result, we want to see:

• • Consumer awareness of the priority services register increases to 60% by 2025 and 75% by the end of 2030.
  • The number of consumers signed up to companies’ priority services registers increases to 4.5% by 2023 – a milestone towards their overall performance commitment requirement of 7% by 2025.