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16 | 21sT - 27Th NovEmbEr 2014 | UTILITY WEEK Policy & Regulation House of Lords and on to the statue book, the government bowed to industry pressure and incorporated retail exit into the Act. Yet, even with these continuous changes to the make-up of the market, Open Water interim chief executive Parsonage remains confident that the multitude of issues will be solved, and solved in time. "There are advantages to having cre- ated Open Water in the way that we have," he says. "It will allow us to put in place a pseudo governance structure for what we may have for the live market itself." He adds that the changes that have been made were done for the benefit of the scheme. Parsonage says: "The programme has done a really excellent job in terms of driv- ing forward the work that needs to be done, having delivered the first of the high level designs at the beginning of the year. "While that has progressed, at the same time the requirement to provide the addi- tional funding that the programme is going to need to deliver, has been running in parallel. "It was necessary to create a new entity, so we have actually created it earlier than we would have otherwise done." The industry's confidence is impressive, but as time runs short, there are still many pieces of the puzzle to assemble before the picture is complete. Powles bows out Mark Powles was the poster boy of the retail reforms, the champion of competition. The then-chief executive of Business Stream, the incumbent supplier in Scotland, was pushing for a level playing field for new entrants into the English water market. He was expected to lead the supplier into the newly opened English market in 2017, however, on 6 October 2014, all this came crashing down as Powles unexpectedly announced his decision to step down. No reason has been offered by Business Stream for his departure, which promptly appointed the company's finance director, Johanna Dow, as interim chief. She tells Utility Week the company's experience in Scotland makes it ideally placed to pursue the market in England, and that is what it will do. "We continue to focus on our plans to expand in the English water market – we're already working with several businesses and are having continuing discussions with many others," she says. What customers stand to gain It is all well and good competition being introduced in England, but what do the business customers, who were so keen for it to be introduced, stand to gain? The Consumer Council for Water (CCWater) says business customers are "quite prolific in their switching behaviour" in non-water markets (such as energy, insurance and mobile telecommunications), because of both price and customer service. The water sector can expect the same. It is also expected that opening up the water market will make things simpler for busi- nesses, especially those with multiple sites. Currently, each site in each different water company region receives a separate water bill. In the future, they will be able to choose one supplier for all of their sites, and receive a single water bill. Water retailers should also look at customer service in a new way, entering into partner- ships with their customers and addressing issues such as water efficiency, which would not only save customers money, but would also reduce the demands on the networks. B O O K N O W A T W W W . U W - T W E N T Y F I V E Y E A R S . N E T 25 Years: A reception marking the anniversary of the privatisation of the water industry in 1989, and looking for ward to the next quarter of a century. In 1989, the UK government began a unique experiment: the privatisation of the water industry. Twenty-five years on, and following £110 billion of investment and some very public highs and lows, Utility Week is gathering the water sector's leaders to reflect on the challenges of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Follow us on Twitter @utilityweek #uw25years K E Y N O T E S P E E C H E S W I L L B E D E L I V E R E D B Y : Jonson Cox Ofwat chairman Robert Miller Bakewell Industry analyst Barbara Frost Chief Executive Wateraid Ian Byatt Former Director General Ofwat