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UTILITY WEEK | 8TH - 14TH JULY 2016 | 9 Interview T his year marks 15 years since Welsh Water became the UK's first, and still only, not-for-profit water company. In a small boutique hotel in Mayfair, Utility Week meets Chris Jones, chief executive of the company, who says this bold move is still paying dividends – to custom- ers rather than shareholders. Inevitably, given the timing of our meeting so soon aer the recent referendum, Brexit and its potential impact on the water sector is a key item for discussion. So too is the opening of the non-domestic water market in England, a process that Welsh Water is observing with interest from a distance – it is not a step the Welsh market will mirror. First of all though, Jones is keen to talk about the evo- lution of Welsh Water's relationship with its customers in the 15 years since its birth. This financial year was the first year in AMP6 that Welsh Water achieved its gearing target for the business, and Jones says this is enabling it to "do more" for cus- tomers – primarily because it will use £32 million to drive customer-centric improvements, rather than delivering it to shareholders as might be the case in a conventionally structured water company. Jones himself was one of the authors of the compa- ny's not-for-profit model, which was born, like many big company overhauls, out of adversity. The now chief executive had been with Welsh Water for five years when the company's owner at the time, Hyder, found itself under immense financial strain and was forced in effect to put itself up for sale. It wasn't the first time that Jones – then director of regulation – had been at the centre of a disruptive change process in the water industry. During priva- tisation, he worked at an economic consultancy that was closely involved in that most momentous industry reconfiguration. Reflecting on Welsh Water's painful turning point, Jones tells Utility Week: "As a director of Welsh Water at the time, it was a very difficult situation because it is a long-term business. It's all about having long-term investment plans and being able to raise money effi- ciently to finance them." Shackled to its struggling parent, however, Welsh Water found its ability to present a long-term outlook fundamentally compromised. It was issued with a very poor credit rating and found itself shrouded in uncer- tainty – particularly damaging to an essential public ser- vice business. Attacking this "perverse" situation head on, Jones and fellow Welsh Water director Nigel Annett took the courageous decision to go back to the drawing board and radically reinvent the company as a not-for-profit enterprise, with no shareholders and an intrinsically customer-first ethos. "It was a blank sheet of paper, and it was a kind of once in a lifetime opportunity," says Jones. It also allowed the company, according to Jones, to