The main aims of the research were to find out non-household customer views about the sale or transfer of their account to a new retailer with the market opening in April 2017, and whether different sized organisations held different views about retail exit.

The key findings are:

  • Many businesses’ preferred outcome would be for their water company not to exit the retail market
  • Customers did see more advantages of a transfer to a licensed retailer that is associated with their local water company, rather than a retailer who is unrelated, such as ‘Tesco Water’

Key concerns:

  • Retail exit will lead to higher prices and customers will be unfairly locked into a contract with a new retailer that they are unable to leave
  • How long protections stay in place, to allow time to consider the market.
Download Download the Retail Exit Strategies research findings (pdf – 2 MB)