Utility Week - authoritative, impartial and essential reading for senior people within utilities, regulators and government
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/783648
People & Opinion Utility Week community utILIty WeeK | 10th - 16th February 2017 | 7 "I am desperately disappointed with the government's response to the problem of home energy efficiency outlined in the new Energy Company Obligation" Shadow energy minister Alan Whitehead "If you can't measure, you can't manage – and the most uncertain element of water management is the demand" Professor Dragan Savic, co-director of the University of Exeter's Centre for Water Systems "Npower's 9.8 per cent price rise is further evidence that the energy market is broken" Peter Earl, head of energy, comparethemarket.com. Read more, p22 What's the most important lesson/idea people should take away from your presentation? From the day, I'd hope people will appreciate better the challenges they face in the months ahead, and that they take at least one practical tip Speaker's corner Philip King, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Credit Management away that can improve their operation. What has been the most successful or challenging experience in your career and what did you learn from it? Achieving Royal Chartered status for the Chartered Institute of Credit Management to give the credit management profession its proper status and recognition. Which five people would you invite to your dream dinner party and why? 1. Winston Churchill – for his brilliant use of words. 2. Martin Luther King – for his visionary ideals, and to hear his view on the world today. 3. Brian Redhead – copresenter of Radio 4's Today programme when I was growing up, for his quickthinking wit. 4. Bill Nicholson – for his approach to managing the most successful Tottenham Hotspur team. 5. Margaret Thatcher – for insights into how she succeeded in a man's world, and to hear her spar with Churchill. Name four items you keep on your desk that reveal something about you. 1. Photos of my family. 2. A Tottenham Hotspur calendar. 3. My iPad (right arm!). 4. Charging cables; I'm paranoid about batteries dying. Philip King is conference chair at the Utility Week Consumer Debt Conference on 16 March in Birmingham. For more information, visit: events.utilityweek.co.uk/debt/ Nuclear pension row a row over pensions for civil nuclear workers has headed to Westminster, with Labour MP albert Owen tabling an early Day Motion about the issue on 2 February. In it, Owen called on MPs to note their concerns over the situation over proposed reforms that could see some employees lose up to 75 per cent of their pensions. he called on the government to honour agreements made before the 2016 enterprise act and reconsider the proposed pension changes. trade unions representing workers in the nuclear sector have also urged the government to suspend a consultation on the changes to their members' pensions. Prospect deputy general secretary Dai hudd said the consultation process was not good enough and it should be suspended until the issues raised were resolved. the joint trade unions (Prospect, GMb, unite and aslef) have already agreed a number of steps to defend members' pensions, including raising it as an issue in the upcoming Copeland by-election and considering plans for industrial action if detrimental changes are imposed. Jon Cowan, director of new product development, Utilitywise, writes: Defence is best offence for water companies "Water companies should be preparing now by improving the fundamentals of business – service, correct billing and support. Customers are widely expressing dissatisfaction with their current supplier, so to maintain customers water companies need to improve. Defence is the best offence." to read the full blog, visit: http://bit.ly/2jQ20Zy From the blog eLeCtrICIty