Time to act, together
At the beginning of 2024, we refreshed our Ofwat Strategy, Time to act, together. This strategy sets out our ambition for the water sector: providing the very best service for customers, improving the environment and improving life through water, both now and in the future – and the role we will play in achieving it.
Our strategy sets out our three strategic goals:
- To transform water companies’ performance
- To drive water companies to meet long-term challenges through increased collaboration and partnerships
- For water companies to provide best value and outcomes for customers, communities and the environment, now and in the future
What we have heard from customers
To inform our strategy, we spent a lot of our time listening. We have reached out to thousands of people with an interest in the water sector and had face-to-face conversations with more than 250 organisations and members of the public.
Many of the people we talked to emphasised the urgency of responding and adapting to climate change, understanding the scale of the long-term environmental challenges facing the sector, and ensuring companies are resilient against several factors.
Through our conversations, we have identified what people want most from the water sector:
- reliable, resilient, safe and good quality water and wastewater services for everyone;
- water companies to leave the environment in a better condition for our grandchildren;
- value for money, keeping water affordable even for those on low incomes; and
- for water companies to act in the long-term interests of society and the environment while still providing the very best service for customers today.
All our work set out in this strategy will meet one or more of these needs. We have also developed our customer insights function to enable us to continue to listen to customers as the landscape evolves. This enables us to ensure we are always aware of how the needs of customers and wider stakeholders are changing, allowing us to respond appropriately.