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utILIty WEEK | 16th - 22nd January 2015 | 7 Interview C ongratulations Ofwat, you have (almost) completed what has been received, at least by consumer groups, as a well-balanced price review that will ultimately lead to lower bills in real terms for water cus- tomers. And your reward is a huge pat on the back from Labour. Not a celebratory, "well-done, haven't you done well" kind of pat on the back: more of a "you've made a start, but you're going to have to do a lot more than that" kind of pat on the back. At least that is what the shadow water minister Angela Smith would have you believe. And she reserves the same iron fist/velvet glove approach for water companies. She congratulates them for "acknowledging" change is needed, and for starting to incorporate their customers' views, via the customer challenge groups, into their business plans, but warns that a much stronger focus on customers, rather than profits, is needed and will be enforced – should Labour win the general election. Speaking to Utility Week, the Penistone and Stocks- bridge MP is keen to show that Labour will go into May's general election with its steel toe-capped boots on ready to kick the water industry further into shape through changing regulation, introducing a national social tariff, and by getting to grips with abstraction reform. She admits that the final determinations published by Ofwat at the end of last year "have, to some extent, acknowledged the case for change" by cutting the aver- age water bill (in 2014 prices) from £396 in 2015 to £376 by 2020 – a drop of 5 per cent. This is greater than the 2 per cent originally put forward by the water companies in their business plans back in December 2013. A total of £44 billion of investment has been planned for the next five years, and additional support schemes are being introduced, which the regulator says will help a total of 1.8 million people by the end of the decade. However, Smith warns that "there is a lot further to go" and that a Labour government – one she hopes to be a part of come 8 May – would seek further changes to help ease the "burden" on customers. Indeed, she needs to follow up on the big promises set out by shadow environment secretary Maria Eagle in a dramatic party conference speech in September to