Utility Week

UW March 2021

Utility Week - authoritative, impartial and essential reading for senior people within utilities, regulators and government

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16 | MARCH 2021 | UTILITY WEEK Utility Week Awards Analysis Triumph in adversity Utility Week's 2020 awards ceremony saw the industry unite to celebrate the incredible achievements of companies, teams and individuals over the past year. Here we review the winners. O n 8 February hundreds of professionals from across the UK's energy and water sectors tuned in to hear the winners of the Utility Week Awards 2020 revealed at an action-packed virtual ceremony, hosted by Utility Week's senior editorial leaders and the renowned national broadcaster Jeremy Vine. The biggest winners of the night were SGN – who scooped the coveted Utility of the Year prize – and Anglian Water, which took home three awards for its leadership on tackling net zero, acting as a responsible employer and demonstrating excellence in its supply chain management. But many other companies also celebrated wins in the 13 main categories up for grabs. Here we list all the triumphant companies who convinced the expert awards judging panel that their success stories from the past year – marked as it has been by unprecedented operational and workforce morale challenges – shone out above all others. A Winners' Review including listings of all the ' nalists and highly commended entries to the Utility Week Awards 2020, as well as rec- ognition of the awards winners with celebratory comments from company representatives, is also available to download now from www.utilityweek.co.uk. Industry Champion Among Utility Week's regular awards catego- ries is the Industry Champion. Each year, this award is presented to an individual who has demonstrated outstanding commitment and passion to furthering the interests of utilities and their customers. For 2020, the award went to Tony Smith, former chief executive of CCW. Here's what he had to say about the accolade: "I'm delighted to be chosen Utility Week Indus- try Champion. Representing customers in the vital services provided by this sector has been a fantastic privilege. I pay tribute to my former team at CCW and thank the many, many people in the sector at all levels who have helped me improve things for customers. Sometimes we had to challenge poor performance, as custom- ers expect of us. However we also applauded strong performance and improvement, and there has been plenty of progress to celebrate. Customers are much closer to the heart of the industry now than they were in 2005 when CCW set out with that aim. We argued for and now see that regulation and price setting in water (and energy) are centred around custom- ers. Pressure by CCW on poor performance and changes to regulatory incentives have seen a 70% reduction in complaints to companies and steady improvement in customer perception. The very best companies are now continually driving up their customer satisfaction. And we successfully advocated for social tariž s, government help for water customers in the south west of England, and more ež ective help for vulnerable customers that recognises that anybody can be vulnerable when vital utility services go wrong. There's more to be done, for sure. Mak- ing the signi' cant changes to infrastructure required to deal with resilience and car- bon reduction will need more segmented approaches to customers. Competition needs to be assessed critically for it's real impact on customers. Any bill increases will need to be paced across all infrastructure sectors to avoid customer kick back, which has undermined the sector in the past. In particular, more compre- hensive help for the 3 million customers with až ordability problems would help avoid any unnecessary drag on vital investment. From what I have heard by listen- ing to customers, I'm encouraged that there is support out there for the industry to deal with these challenges, as long as it keeps cus- tomers close to it's heart." Tony Smith, former CEO, CCW

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