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UTILITY WEEK | 10TH - 16TH APRIL 2015 | 9 Interview D ame Yve Buckland, the founding chair of the Con- sumer Council for Water (CCWater) is chipper, tak- ing her imminent departure from the organisation in her stride. She is standing down aer a decade in posi- tion, a decade that began in turmoil and is ending on the cusp of major reforms. Today, she meets Utility Week to reflect on her time in the role. In ten years, there has been an almost complete turn- around of how customers view their water companies. In 2005, bills soared following the PR04 review, and the industry was splashed across the news, with Panorama investigating as droughts hit and leakage targets were missed. Today, the industry has just emerged blinking from one of its toughest price reviews, with customer bills falling in real terms, complaints down by more than 50 per cent and customers now an integral part of the price review process. That's success in anyone's terms: how did Buckland do it, and what's next for the organi- sation and her successor, Alan Lovell? Buckland's departure comes at a time when the future of consumer watchdogs is up in the air. The energy equivalent, Consumer Futures, was rolled into Citizens Advice last year. At that time, there were questions asked about whether CCWater should go the same way. Buckland's answer is clear and definitive: CCWater is here to stay. She says the loss of the "strong consumer voice" of Energy Watch (which became Consumer Futures before becoming part of Citizens Advice) has dramatically hit the public perception of energy and this needs to be avoided in the water sector. "There have been good things energy has done, some good things, but you don't hear any of that as a member of the public. They don't see or feel that. That's why we need to have an independent customer voice." That independent voice will help avoid the mistakes of the past – mistakes that Buckland recalls with a wry smile today. "There is no doubt that in those early days customers were not receiving the service they wanted and deserved – nor were they getting value for money," she says. In April 2005, customers saw their bills jump by a massive 8.5 per cent, thanks to a light hand from the reg- ulator in PR04. There was an increase in customer bills of 18 per cent over the five years to 2010. The squeeze on household budgets was exacerbated by a lack of pay- ment assistance schemes "as well as a lack of customer awareness that help was available". Added to this already toxic mix was a drought in 2006, missed leakage targets, hosepipe bans, cases of misreporting and whistle blowing at Severn Trent and Southern Water, which were placed under criminal investigation for fraud. "There was a Panorama programme on what was