The partnership forms part of wider efforts by the independent water watchdog to ensure the one in eight water customers who say their water bill is not affordable receive the help they need before sinking into debt 1. WATRS is designed to help the customers who are still dissatisfied even after CCWater’s involvement. CCW has supported the companies’ work in this area. We’ve ensured additional measures to support customers through the cost of living crisis were implemented. Our One Year on Report summarised the progress achieved since the publication of the recommendations in our independent review of water affordability. We will continue to work with companies to make progress.

S29A Power of Council to investigate other matters – gives CCW the power to investigate any matter which appears to it to be a matter relating to the interests of consumers. While the trends in companies’ individual scores do not necessarily reflect the same patterns as the industry overview set out in Table 2, generally speaking, for those negative differences that are highlighted in yellow on that table, companies will also see flat or worsening trends. It’s been a difficult time for many households in recent years. People’s personal finances have been affected by a volatile economy, the impact of a pandemic and the soaring cost of living – including eye-watering energy costs. S27J Provision of information by the Council – provides for CCW to provide information to the Authority, Secretary of State or the Welsh Government. In the event that the matter is frustratingly still not resolved, you have the right to complain to the Consumer Council for Water (CCWater), which is independent from your water and sewerage company.If you remain unhappy even after you’ve sought help from CCWater directly, you should go through CCWater’s complaints procedure. CCWater has teamed up with poverty relief charity Turn2us opens in new window to provide a benefits calculator and grants search tool to help struggling water customers in England and Wales identify ways to bolster their income. S66 The development of market codes, and some charging issues in the lead up to competition widening out to all non-household customers; S43 Incumbents exiting the non-household retail market – the development of Regulations and depending on the final Regulations, possibly separately by companies when they apply to exit; All water companies provide support and financial assistance to customers who are struggling to pay their bills. We want to help the industry understand where to focus its attention to meet the challenges that people are facing. Companies have been working to improve this financial assistance.

We also looked at the three main measures from Water Matters that indicate how well water companies are supporting customers who are financially struggling. We compared the results with last year’s Water Matters data. Generally, we see bigger fluctuations in affordability across the groups of ethnic minority customers compared to the white customers. The white customer base is very large, which reduces the extreme fluctuations, but ethnic minority groups are still more likely to see fluctuations/sensitivity to the changes in affordability. Customer views on how their finances have changed over the previous 12 monthsThe recent rise in the financial pressures on households means it is important to make information available to people. This year saw an improvement in the direction of the CE trend, which is positive. Until this year, the trend in the customer engagement score was downward but now both the 9-year and 5-year trends are flat. This is because, in 2022, there were large increases in the CE score in both England and Wales.