Water & Wastewater Treatment

8 | october 2015 | WWt | www.wwtonline.co.uk Comment Bringing service standards home guide for home builders. The Better Connected guide, published in December 2014, was designed to work towards a 'smooth and collaborative' process for the installation of utilities on housing sites. As part of the overall initiative, water companies signed up to a consistent set of standards which were finalised in early 2015. Water UK's performance figures, published in July, are the first set of quarterly results. It is fair to say the outcomes for the period covered by the first release (April-June) present a mixed picture. While the overall headline results were broadly positive and some water companies have performed very well indeed, there are major areas of concern. For instance, some of those water companies dealing with the largest volumes of requests from builders generally performed below target levels. By way of example, Thames Water, responsible for almost 30% of the total requests, failed to meet targets. Meanwhile, for mains design and construction – some of the most important indicators for developers – the industry generally under- performed. Furthermore, many in the house building sector believe that given more time and greater consideration, alternative, more effective standards could have been included within the overall suite of measures published by Water UK. In a monopolistic market such as water supply, the new measures represent a useful indication of the service that developers are receiving and, hopefully, highlights those in need of remedial work to achieve adequate standards. To succeed the survey must become a meaningful barometer and a tool for water companies to improve. If, given time, this initiative fails to yield better service from more responsive water companies then the conclusion must surely be that the regulation of the industry is inadequate. We will continue to work closely with Government, Ofwat, Water UK and the industry to develop a more effective framework that will enable the investment that is required. To that end, we would like to see a single national standard for charging rather than the myriad of different schedules presented to house builders operating in several areas of the country. Government remains committed to driving up housing output and evidently considers this to be an area in which a considerable degree of political capital has been staked. For house builders, too, the success of the new performance indicators is an extremely important factor in supporting better outcomes which, in turn, allows for greater investment in the land and labour required to build more homes. Dave Mitchell technical Director home builDers FeDeration Developers have welcomed new data on the standards of service that they are receiving from water and wastewater companies T he recent publication by Water UK of new data on the service that water companies are providing to developers represented a very positive step in the right direction. The new Government's ambition to significantly increase the supply of new homes permeates all levels of the administration with the Prime Minister and Chancellor making significant announcements on the subject in the weeks and months following the general election in May. In an effort to tackle the intractable long-term issues acting as obstacles to the achievement of this aim, ministers last year alighted on the provision of utilities as a factor in the deceleration of development ultimately restricting the completion of new homes. Considerable effort has gone on behind the scenes to ensure that developers and utilities companies are aware of their responsibilities and work together to facilitate home building. The most high profile output from this work has been the production of a

• Cover