Complaints spike over water companies’ failure to deal with environment concerns

Complaints to the water consumer watchdog at its highest level for nearly a decade

Complaints made to the Consumer Council for Water (CCW) have reached their highest level for nearly a decade – with 29% more complaints being escalated by household water company customers in England and Wales in 2023-24.

Water companies had 222,956 complaints from their customers, a 10% rise on the previous year. Of these, 7,977 complaints were escalated to CCW by customers who were unhappy with the response they received from their water company. Water companies get two chances to resolve a customer’s complaint before it can be escalated.

Complaints about customers’ concerns about the environment saw a massive increase of 217% of the past year. These were mainly relating to storm overflows and sewage spills into rivers; further reflecting the low consumer trust in water companies’ ability to protect the environment.

Issues relating to water meters rose by 30%, including concerns over how often they were being read and whether they were working properly.

CCW chief executive Mike Keil said: 

‘Households are having to waste far too much time and energy resolving complaints, which water companies should be getting right first time. Trust in the water sector is already badly fractured and the poor handling of complaints will only compound people’s frustration.

‘We’re particularly concerned to see a significant rise in complaints from customers with water meters who are questioning the accuracy of their bill.

‘More companies are planning to roll out smart meters over the next few years, so they must listen and act on people’s concerns now or risk further damaging customer trust.’

Concerns about sewage pollution

CCW’s report comes amid mounting public and political fury around firms’ polluting of waterways with sewage spills as they continue to hand dividends to shareholders, and bonuses to executives – something which Labour has pledged to clamp down on.

Sewage spills into England’s rivers and seas more than doubled in 2023.

According to the Environment Agency, there were 3.6 million hours of spills last year – equal to about 400 years – compared with 1.75 million hours in 2022.

Earlier this year, Ofwat revealed £168 million of proposed fines for three of England’s biggest water companies for failing to manage sewage spills, including a £104 million penalty for troubled Thames Water.

The fine for Thames came alongside a planned £47 million penalty for Yorkshire Water and £17 million for Northumbrian Water after a “catalogue of failure” by the firms, according to Ofwat in the first batch of results from its biggest ever investigation into the industry.

The Competition Appeal Tribunal is currently considering whether a £1.5 billion lawsuit against six water companies accused of underreporting sewage pollution will go to trial.

Water companies performance on complaints

CCW rated Thames Water and Yorkshire Water, which are both water and wastewater companies, as “poor” – its lowest category – for both total complaints and the way complaints were handled.

Thames Water was the worst performer overall, with customers making more complaints directly to the company, as well as to CCW, than any other supplier.

Yorkshire Water also performed poorly, with the number of complaints coming to CCW about the company rising by 90%.

Cambridge Water was the only water-only provider to be rated as poor on both total complaints and its handling of them.

CCW said it had seen a 77% increase in the number of complaints it had received about Cambridge Water, with most of these disputes relating to bills from metered households.

Wessex Water and Portsmouth Water were the only two companies to receive a top score from CCW on both measures of performance.

David Bird, retail director at Thames Water, said: ‘We are committed to improving the experience of our customers and have been working closely alongside CCW to address these issues. CCW have recognised the collaborative approach we have taken and that the improvements we are making are showing promise. However, we recognise we have more to do.

‘Our turnaround plan is focused on resolving customer complaints and improving the quality of their interaction with our business, from first contact through to resolution.

‘Furthermore, we have proposed an ambitious business plan for 2025-2030 based on customers’ feedback and insight. Our customers told us to focus on delivering safe and resilient water supplies, address concerns over our overall performance including on customer service, and deal more effectively with wastewater. If approved, it will deliver the improvements customers are looking for.’

Imran Patel, group customer experience director at Yorkshire Water, said: ‘We have worked closely with CCW to audit our complaints process and have received positive feedback for our customer-focused culture and the speed and effectiveness of complaints resolution.

‘Of course, we recognise we need to do more and have included in our PR24 (price review) plans, which are awaiting approval from Ofwat, a series of investments designed to improve our customers’ experience when dealing with us.’

A Water UK spokesman said: “Water companies work hard to provide the drinking water that is independently rated the joint-highest standard in the world.

‘While any rise in customer complaints should be examined, not all complaints are necessarily evidence of poor service. A better measure is the number of complaints sent by the Consumer Council for Water to adjudication, which fell 37%, from 153 late last year to 57 for the equivalent period this year.’

Water companies asking for significant bill increases

In July, Ofwat proposed that water firms should be allowed to increase bills by a third less than they had requested on average.

Water firms had put forward plans for increases averaging £144 over five years, although there were significant variations in price changes between suppliers.

Ofwat said its proposals to cap the average bill increase at 21% – around £19 per year – follows firms’ proposals to increase their total spending by £29 billion, split between a £5 billion increase in the core costs for running their business and a £24 billion rise in spending to meet requirements set by governments and for other environmental improvements.

In its response to Ofwat’s draft determination on water companies’ plans, Thames proposed raising average yearly water bills to £666.50 per customer by 2030, a 52% rise.

That could rise to £696, a 59% increase, if it is given extra spending allowances by the regulator.

Ofwat said it will consider all responses ‘carefully’ ahead of its final decision on water firms’ spending plans by 19 December.