There has been widespread coverage across multiple media outlets of government plans to strengthen protections for water company customers when their basic water services are disrupted.
Subject to an eight-week consultation, the proposals will double payments for all existing standards and will more than double the payments for certain highly disruptive incidents, such as when water companies fail to provide notice of supply interruptions and miss arranged appointments with customers.
The government will also expand the list of circumstances that can trigger compensation, including automatic payments for boil notices when drinking water standards drop, or when water companies fail to conduct meter readings or installations as promised.
The changes would mean that recent outages in Brixham and Bramley earlier this year would have automatically led to compensation for all customers, where there was no entitlement before.
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Steve Reed said:
Our water industry is broken.
After years of failure, households and businesses have been let down by water companies time and time again.
The new Government will clean up the water industry and turn the tide on the destruction of our waterways ensuring water companies protect the interests of their customers and the environment.
Welcoming the launch of the consultation, Jenny Suggate, Director of Policy, Research and Campaigns at CCW, said:
We're delighted the government is fast-tracking efforts to improve the Guaranteed Standards Scheme, with the potential to boost compensation and support for hundreds of thousands of people each year when they are let down by their water company.
Given that there has been little change to the standards since they were first introduced, an overhaul is long overdue, and we know it is a pressing priority for household and business customers.
Demanding higher standards of service and improving levels of compensation when things go wrong will incentivise water companies to get things right the first time for all customers.