Striking the right balance forYorkshire

Striking the right balance for Yorkshire We've now sent our final business plan for 2010-2015 to Ofwat.

Our approach in developing the plan has been to 'strike the right balance'.

This means we've taken on board the views of our customers and stakeholders and taken into account prices, service, investor returns, the environment and improving our works and pipes.

What's a final business plan?- it's our proposal about how we'll invest in Yorkshire's water and waste water network and how much we'll charge customers to reflect this investment.

We've proposed spending £1.9 billion to upgrade Yorkshire's water and sewerage network, tackling the issues which customers have told us are the top priorities. This includes:

Maintaining high standards of service and water quality
Reducing the number of properties that experience internal sewer flooding
Continuing to ensure that people in Yorkshire have a secure supply of drinking water
Minimising pollution incidents and delivering improvements to rivers and beaches

Watch our video to see how we're planning on striking the right balance for Yorkshire. Click on play below:

Proposed price rises

We've suggested that the average customer bill will rise by around £4 a year between 2010 and 2015 to fund this extra investment. We believe this 'strikes the right balance', bearing in mind the need to meet higher environmental standards and massive increases in power costs.

Price limits and effect on average bills (2007-08 prices)
	2009-10	2010-11	2011-13	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15
Proposed price limit	2.10%	1.70%	1.70%	1.70%	1.70%	1.70%
Indicative price limit (water service)	0.70%	1.40%	1.40%	1.40%	1.40%	1.40%
1. Average measured household bill	124	126	127	129	131	133
2. Average unmeasured household bill	154	156	159	161	163	165
3. Average household bill	143	144	145	146	148	149
Indicative price limit (sewerage service)	3.40%	2.20%	2.20%	2.20%	2.20%	2.20%
1. Average measured household bill	142	145	149	152	155	159
2. Average unmeasured houshold bill	179	183	187	191	195	200
3. Average household	165	168	171	174	176	179
Average household bill (total)	308	312	316	320	324	328

What happens next?

Ofwat has now published its draft decision and proposed that bills will fall by around £5 or two percent to £326 by 2015, before inflation. We'd be able to invest around £1.7billion to help maintain and improve services, a similar level to the last five years.

We are particularly keen that our regulator understands and fully recognises our proposals for further investment in areas such as sewer flooding and bathing water quality, which enjoyed strong stakeholder and customer support.

We're now preparing to discuss the draft decision with Ofwat before they make a final decision in November 2009.

A look further into the future

As part of our planning we've produced a strategic direction statement to look at our aspirations of service and prices right through to 2035. As part of the plan we asked one of our most important audiences for their ideas - children ! - after all they'll be our customers in 25 years time.

We were inundated with fun, interesting and creative ideas - take a look...