Strategy and stakeholder engagement
South West Water has achieved much since privatisation, and the improvements in our services are clear:
|
1995 |
2011 |
|
|---|---|---|
|
Overall customer satisfaction with services |
49% |
80% |
|
Drinking water compliance |
99.56% |
99.97% |
|
Waste water treatment works compliant with standards |
81% |
93% |
|
Leakage |
140 Ml/day |
84 Ml/day |
|
Properties at risk of being flooded with sewage |
0.081% |
0.005% |
|
Domestic customers on a metered supply |
7% |
71% |
2010/11 Target
Use stakeholder engagement research for corporate responsibility reporting to develop improved engagement with up to ten stakeholders.
Met
Our Strategic Direction Statement sets out our aspirations and outlines some of the challenges we face in pursuing this vision over a 25-year period.
Customers have told us in no uncertain terms that the very least they expect from us, whatever the impacts of climate change, is a supply of water that they can use without worrying about its quality or reliability. Neither do they want the environment to be damaged by our activities. At the same time, they are concerned about the level of bills. Sustainable solutions are needed which meet statutory obligations and also adapt to the effects of climate change. This will involve new ways of thinking and working, and the regulatory framework will need to develop further to ensure appropriate incentives are provided to encourage these sustainable solutions.
We involved a wide range of stakeholders in developing our Strategic Direction Statement and the business plans for the K5 period that evolved from the statement. Their involvement is essential as, against the background of a complex policy and regulatory context for the water industry, our stakeholders have diverse remits and differing requirements which we need to understand and balance in our strategy and plans. Engagement with stakeholders through a quadripartite process ensured structured discussions with the Environment Agency, Natural England, the Consumer Council for Water, the Drinking Water Inspectorate and Ofwat allowing us to understand and discuss the sometimes competing requirements of our key stakeholders. We also ran workshop sessions with regulatory bodies, groups of business customers, environmental organisations and domestic customers. This has led to our confidence that our K5 business plan represents appropriate balances between customer service standards, environment impact, investment needs and the aim to keep the cost of customer bills as low as possible.
The Strategic Direction Statement describes the ways in which we aim to deliver the specific outputs set out in our business plan:
Sustainability:
- working in partnership with other organisations to manage responsibly river catchment, estuaries and coastline, improving the environment and protecting raw water quality
- delivering quality improvements to rivers, bathing waters, shellfish waters and groundwaters, in the most cost effective and sustainable way possible
- meeting carbon reduction targets through energy efficiency and increased renewable energy generation.
Efficiency:
- Consistently being amongst the most efficient companies in the industry
- Expending remote site operation and control of our networks without compromising service.
Investors and debt providers:
- Giving a fair return for their investment from a soundly financed business.
The section in this report on Environmental Sustainability sets out the progress made in the year towards the matters listed under Sustainability above.