Social sustainability
Quality of service
The sustained investment in improving our key interactions with customers and refining working practices is yielding positive results with a reduction in complaints for the third consecutive year. Written complaints were down by over a quarter on 2009/10.
During the year we developed new and easier ways for customers to contact us, resulting in improved figures for call handling: the number of calls abandoned was down from 7.4% to 5.1% and calls met with an engaged tone down 0.32% to 0.17%.
We also developed online accounts, to enable customers to manage their water account without the need to call. This service was launched on 1 April 2011.
Customer satisfaction is monitored quarterly by means of an independent long term tracking survey. The average level of satisfaction for 2010/11 was 80.3%, with the level of dissatisfaction reported as 7.8%, following an improving trend from previous levels.
The Service Incentive Mechanism (SIM) has been introduced by Ofwat for reporting purposes during 2010/11. Incentives for the company associated with this measure will use results reported from 2011/12 onwards. As such, during the year the company has been working on strengthening reporting systems that support the quantitative element of the SIM measure.
Customers have told us of the crucial importance to them of a supply of water that they can use without worrying about its quality or reliability.
We test the quality of our drinking water, and this is overseen by the Drinking Water Inspectorate and published in their annual quality report. In the calendar year 2010, we achieved 99.97% compliance, with our customers continuing to benefit from very high water quality. There were no major or serious water quality incidents during 2010.
Surface water is discharged to the sewer system, in addition to waste water. Our waste water treatment works include storm water tanks to contain the high volumes of water which occur during rainfall events, pending treatment. However, when the system is overburdened, Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) operate to prevent flooding. We have 1,001 CSOs in our region. In spite of this, very occasionally properties are flooded. Whilst all foul flooding is regrettable and each instance represents a very unpleasant situation for a customer, the following chart details the low percentage of properties experiencing this problem. We are working with local authorities to identify ways in which surface water can be removed from our sewers in order to reduce overflow operation.
We carry out proactive sewer jetting and cleaning in high risk areas to help reduce the risk of foul flooding. We estimate that 3,000 tonnes of Fats, Oils and Greases (FOG) are discharged to our sewers per annum. Our FOG campaign informs customers about inappropriate use of sewers with the aim of reducing the risk of flooding incidents and environmental damage.
Water efficiency
The company continues to promote the efficient use of water with advice and practical support for householders and non-domestic customers. This is described more fully in the section in this report on Environmental Sustainability.