Conclusions on charging innovation to support affordability
| Date | 28 March 2023 |
March 2023
Conclusions on charging innovation
to support affordability
Conclusions on charging innovation to support affordability
1
About this document
This document concludes on the policy questions set out in our September 2022 consultation
on charging innovation to support affordability. We explored how water companies could use
innovation in household charges to support affordability, and potentially other sustainability
goals including greater water efficiency. We called on water companies to conduct charging
trials that are accompanied by effective customer engagement and support.
We are grateful for the pertinent and in-depth responses from many stakeholders and
companies to our consultations and the contributions to our November 2022 workshop. We
welcome the support for charging trials shown by companies and the Consumer Council for
Water (CCW), particularly the proposed trial of a rising block tariff by Affinity Water. We have
published responses to our September 2022 consultation on charging innovation on our
website.
We published a statutory consultation as required when we propose changes to the Charges
Scheme Rules alongside our September consultation, which we concluded on in our
December 2022 decision document on changes to our Charges Scheme Rules which come
into effect on 1 April 2023. The changes remove a potential barrier preventing water
companies from trialling new charging structures, and lists general principles which
companies must now consider when setting their household charges.
Following an executive summary, our conclusions document is structured as follows:
• In chapter 1 we summarise responses to our September consultation and set out our
decisions on the changes we proposed.
• In chapter 2 we set out new case studies, with two companies innovating to support
affordability and alleviate water scarcity, and we report on the sector workshop to
support charging trials.
• In chapter 3 we conclude on our consultation and highlight next steps, in particular
companies' PR24 business plan submissions which are a key opportunity to
demonstrate ambition with respect to charging innovation.
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