The Environment Minister, Richard Benyon, has announced that around 24K businesses across England will be able to choose their water supplier under new reforms soon to be implemented.
At present, only businesses that use more than 50 megalitres of water a year can switch from their existing water supplier to a new one (to put this into perspective, 50 megalitres is equivalent to 20 Olympic-size swimming pools). This means that just over 2K businesses are currently able to choose. Under the new reforms, this threshold will be lowered to just five megalitres increasing the number of businesses that can choose to around 24K.
Scotland’s non-domestic water market was deregulated by the Water Industry Commission for Scotland in April 2008 when Scottish Water’s retail subsidiary Business Stream separated from its parent company. Since 2008 we have seen real benefits for businesses such as a reduction in costs and better services for those who have switched, thus demonstrating the effectiveness of deregulation.
Furthermore, the separation of the retail division from Scottish Water has helped identify inefficiencies within the network systems allowing for improvements to be made.
All of this bodes well for businesses in England and Wales who want to drive down costs and receive better levels of service.
The change, which is subject to Parliamentary approval, is an amendment to the Water Industry Act 1991 and it is hoped that this will be in place by the end of the year.
Other recommendations of the Cave review that are being considered for inclusion in the Water White Paper:
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/quality/water/legislation/whitepaper