Utility Week - authoritative, impartial and essential reading for senior people within utilities, regulators and government
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/461284
8 | 13TH - 19TH FEBRUARY 2015 | UTILITY WEEK Interview and to gather evidence. I know all this sounds like everyone else, but I actually want to do this!" He is clearly keen to communicate that he is very much his own man, so I ask him if there is a risk that by agreeing to chair the resilience working group, the regulator is silencing one of its fiercest critics. "Oh God no. I hadn't even thought of that! I have no intention of not saying those sorts of things. I don't think [Ofwat] would have wanted that. "From my viewpoint, I've been around the water sec tor for a long time – 25 to 30 years. I think we [Waterwise] are freer and probably less burdened than other organi sations. And we are seen as independent. "If Ofwat comes up with this sort of stuff, they're the regulator and people are scared of the regulator. If the water companies come up with this, they're not seen as independent." It is that independence, that freedom, that Tompkins intends to keep. So it's important that he is not seen as too close to any one company or organisation. He says: "We've criticised almost every member of the sector, so I don't think we'll be seen as favouring one group or another!" His distance from Ofwat makes him the ideal person to chair the group, he thinks, and to feed its delibera tions into the next price review. The early work on PR19 is already under way, in as much as the regulator is setting out the agenda and defin ing the framework in which companies will work. The resilience of water and wastewater services – Tompkins stresses the "services" part – will form a vital part of that. "Ofwat wants to walk the walk," Tompkins says. It is determined to deliver. "I think water companies understand that Ofwat is a strong and clear regulator, but it does allow dissent, dia logue and new approaches," he says. The companies expect to receive the framework by the middle of 2017, so they can start work on their busi ness plans. Consequently, Tompkins wants his working group to distil its dissent and dialogue into "something coherent" by this November. As the dust settles on PR14 (for everyone apart from Bristol Water, which is going to the Competition and Mar kets Authority, see p12), the regulator and the industry are already working on PR19. The regulatory treadmill never stops turning and the pace will only increase as 2017 gets closer. However, Tompkins has a long association with the water sector and is used to meeting deadlines. He has been an environmental adviser to the National Farm ers Union and a water resources and water efficiency specialist at Water UK, as well as sitting on a number of European Commission working groups. His time in the industry has given him a confidence and a steely deter mination to get the job done. And it is a job he is obvi ously excited about. He is also excited about where the industry is head ing. "It is an interesting time," he says, leaning back in his chair. "Everything is changing and the water compa nies cannot stay as they were ten years ago." The introduction of competition in the nondomestic sector from April 2017 only adds to the excitement, piling on the pressure for the industry, his working group, and the regulator as well. "This is why now is a good time to think about resil ience. What if there are 10,000 new entrants and people don't know who their water company is any more? How do we deal with resilience in that situation?" Having spent the ten years since forming Waterwise driving the discussion on water effi ciency in the UK and Europe, Tompkins is well versed on resilience, but he is not shy about looking outside the boundaries of the water sector for inspiration. He draws a comparison with the UK's rail network. The retail suppliers are like the rail companies, whereas the service providers (of the pipes, water, and rails) work in the background. And these are some of the people Tompkins wants to reach out to, to see how other indus tries work and how the water sector could learn from, and improve on, what is being done elsewhere. As he prepares to rush off to his next meeting – Tomp kins is a busy man – he mentions one potentially huge disruptive factor: the general election. "Attacking the big utilities and the banks is going to be pretty big during the election campaign. Nobody is going to stand up and say the big utilities are doing a fantastic job." How this affects the water sector, rather than the easiertoattack energy sector, depends largely on how well the industry prepares and shields itself. Tompkins praises Water UK for doing a good job, for "distancing the industry from energy". This brings him back to where this aernoon started. The work that needs to be done and the conversations that need to be had. Building what Ofwat desires, Trust in Water, relies on everyone involved – regulator down through the companies to stakeholders and customers – being involved and engaged. By having the conversations early, "there will be no surprises" for any of the companies, their investors, the customers, or the politicians attempting to win votes, because they all know what they are working towards and what is coming. "Water firms understand that Ofwat is a strong and clear regulator, but it does allow dissent, dialogue and new approaches" Trust in Water Ofwat launched its Trust in Water strategy in London on 21 January. In it, the regulator does away with the classic prescriptive approach to regulation and challenges all stakeholders to get on board and have their say. Trust and confidence in water are the overarching aims. The regulator says that for this to be achieved, the water-only companies and the water and sewerage companies must: listen to their customers and deliver the outcomes they, the environment and wider society want; have strong relationships with the supply chain and investors; and speak with and listen to government and regulators. At the press launch, Sharon Darcy, associate at Sustainability First, said the strategy would not be some "dusty document" that gets read once and then le on a shelf. "This will be a living strategy," she said. "But it is only a living strategy if everyone plays their part." From the archive: Tompkins in Utility Week "Thanks to the Green Alliance, environment is now fully mainstream. The envi- ronment is not an abstract, nor it is not a single issue campaign, it is where we all live and work and play it is our habitat and we are part of it." Utility Week blogs: http://bit.ly/1EVGOcM "It sometimes seems that the water company default solution is, let us build. Problems with sewerage in London? Build a super sewer. Drought in the South East? Build a massive transfer from the North West. Consumption predicted to rise? Build a huge reservoir." Utility Week column: http://bit.ly/1vCmwC8