Risks and resources

Affordability and customer debt

Although our average household bills are relatively low, affordability is an issue for NWL with income deprivation levels in the northern area the highest of all water and sewerage companies and in the southern area, close to the national average.

Providing our customers with a range of payment facilities and frequencies that suit their individual circumstances is a critical element of successful income collection and debt prevention. We ensure that customers are aware of options which help reduce charges and ease the establishment of payment arrangements.

Customers who deliberately avoid paying charges are actively pursued and we continue to work with Ofwat and Defra to seek changes to legislation to assist the industry to impose and collect charges.

Water resources

The way we retain, recycle and distribute our water resources is a central part of our business. While NWL has sufficient water resources in the north east, we believe it is still important to manage the demand for water so that it does not exceed levels that can be supplied in a sustainable way.

In our Essex and Suffolk areas, however, water resource availability is a key issue. We have been successful over many years in encouraging our customers to use less water and in keeping leakage at or below the economic level. Nonetheless, we need to continue to invest to achieve our aim of ensuring our customers have a safe, secure and reliable supply of water well into the future. In spring 2008, we published our draft ‘Water Resources Management Plan’ for consultation and, in January 2009, we produced a Statement of Response to the consultation and provided an updated draft of the plan to Defra. A final plan will be published once approval has been received.

In April 2009, Colchester Borough Council formally approved our application for planning permission for raising Abberton reservoir which will increase its capacity by 58%. The one remaining part of the overall Abberton Scheme that requires permissions is the variation of abstraction licences at Denver and Blackdyke, in Norfolk. Once this Scheme is in operation in 2014, it is unlikely we will need to develop major resources in Essex for the next 25 years.

We will continue to play a leading role in the industry on water efficiency measures and to encourage customers to use water wisely. We will work with other stakeholders to develop a coordinated strategy for reducing water use to sustainable levels.

In areas where water is scarce, water meters have a key role to play in reducing demand. We aim to achieve as near to universal metering as possible in Essex by 2020 and in Suffolk by 2023. On current policies it will take considerably longer to achieve full metering in the north east as there is no economic, environmental or social driver to move more quickly.