Our regulators
We're a regulated company, which means Government watchdogs set us standards to meet and then check how we're doing.
We try to aim higher than these standards and to develop a good relationship and understanding with all our regulators.
The
Office of Water Services (Ofwat) is the economic regulator for water and sewerage services in England and Wales. Ofwat monitors the way in which we provide our customers with a good quality and efficient service at a fair price. Ofwat achieves this by setting limits on the prices we can charge, ensuring we comply with the Water Industry Act 1991, protecting the standard of service we deliver and encouraging us to be more efficient.
The
Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) monitors the water we supply to ensure it's safe to drink and meets the standards set in the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 2000. The DWI independently monitors us and advises the Government on our performance on all aspects of drinking water quality. They carry out inspections to be sure that the results are reliable and give a true picture of the quality of the water supplied.
The
Environment Agency (EA) is responsible for protecting and improving the environment in England and Wales. The EA decides how much water we can take from the environment and issues us with abstraction licences. The EA also ensures the quality of effluent we put back into rivers from our waste water treatment works is at a high enough standard.
