Regulation

In this area you will find out about water supply licences and Welsh Water’s network access code and indicative access prices.

Competition

In July 2007 Ofwat, the water and sewerage regulator for England and Wales, published the first of a series of consultation papers to start a wider debate on the options for promoting the development of competition in the water and sewerage sectors. Here is our response to the consultation questions together with our position paper that provides context to the Ofwat consultation.

Professor Martin Cave led an independent review of competition and innovation in water markets between March 2008 and April 2009. The Review published its final report on 22 April 2009 with recommendations to the UK and Welsh Assembly Governments and sectoral regulators (Ofwat, the Environment Agency and the Drinking Water Inspectorate).

In September 2009 the government began a 12-week consultation on the Cave recommendations. Here is our response to that consultation.

Inset appointment for water and sewerage services at Llanilid

On 20 November 2008, Ofwat announced the start of a 28-day consultation into plans by Scottish and Southern Energy Water to provide water and sewerage services to a new development for around 2,000 houses at “Valleywood”, near Bridgend.

We were concerned that this inset appointment may mean higher bills for customers, loss of accountability for a vital public service, and adverse consequences for our not-for-profit model. Details of our concerns were set out in our correspondence with Ofwat.

5 February 2009
28 January 2009
12 December 2008
27 November 2008

On 3 March 2009, Ofwat appointed Scottish and Southern Energy Water as the water and sewerage undertaker for the site. After careful consideration we took the step of challenging this decision by way of judicial review proceedings. A hearing took place at the High Court of Justice on 10 December 2009. After listening to the arguments and giving careful consideration Mr Justice Mitting delivered his judgment confirming that the Ofwat policy in respect to inset appointments is lawful and rational and it was entitled to apply it as it did to the site.

We are now working with Scottish and Southern Energy Water to progress arrangements for the water and sewerage services to the Llanilid site.