We asked you:

If we should continue to play an important role in schools to help educate pupils about the need to value water as a precious resource and to feedback on our new digital education resources, developed in response to school closures.

You told us:

The majority of members said we should continue to play a role in this by working in partnership with parents and teachers to educate the next generation. You also thought the new materials were great!

We took action by:

We are going to continue to work closely with schools to educate young people across our region. We will also take your feedback on the materials into consideration when we develop new resources in the future.

Find out more about our education resources.

We asked:

Whether you think water meters are the best way to charge customers for the water they use and whether or not we should bring in a policy to make water meters compulsory for all customers.

You told us:

The majority of members said meters are a good idea, with comments that it’s the fairest way to charge for use. There was an even split on whether or not water meters should be compulsory for all homes.

We took action by:

We are going to consult customers through a major study next year to ensure we make the right policy decisions around metering, based on their feedback and the long-term challenges we face as a business. Your feedback will be used to help shape this important project and we will update you on progress as we go.

We asked:

Your thoughts on our 2019 trial using bin lorries to collect more regular meter readings for customers and whether this service should be rolled out to metered customers over the next 20 years across the region.

You told us:

Overall the trial is a great initiative with some clear benefits, such as providing more meter readings and picking up on any leaks quicker. It will also make the job of reading meters quicker and easier.

We took action by:

We are currently working towards making sure our meters have the technology to be read by the bin lorries as they pass and how we can best roll-out this service to more customers over time. We will update you further once our plans for this have been fully agreed.

We asked:

Whether you would be prepared to pay more on your bill each year to have the bin lorry trial rolled out quicker than the 20 years it would take to do this for all metered customers. Please remember this project would take a significant investment.

You told us:

More members said they didn’t want the service, or that they wanted it but would not want to pay more to have it quicker than the time proposed, compared with those who would be prepared to pay more.

We took action by:

We are going to take your valuable feedback to help guide an extensive consultation with customers about the level of investment they want in water meters, compared with all the other areas we need to invest in. This consultation will likely start by the end of this year and we will keep you updated on progress.

We asked you:

About the ways we could help customers to save water and reduce their overall consumption, which has increased as a result of more people staying at home during lockdown and the hot periods over the summer months.

You told us:

That we needed to provide advice
and support to help customers manage their water use. Some of you were concerned about the impact that increased consumption might have on metered customers’ bills.

We took action by:

As bills start going out this year, we have listened to customers’ feedback and developed a new section on our website to help customers who have received a bill that is higher than normal. They can identify the reason for the increase and receive advice and support.

Visit our bill support tool.

We asked you:

whether you thought we should go further to reduce the amount of leakage from our network over the next five years and beyond. Our official target is to reduce leakage by 15% by 2025.

You told us:

Most of you said that we should keep pushing harder to reduce leakage, but without an increase to customers’ bills. This was consistent with other research undertaken with customers in 2017 -18.

We took action by:

Looking at innovative, cost-effective  ways to locate leaks that would otherwise go unnoticed. Our leakage team has been trialling the use of satellites to help detect leaks, and we are now confident enough in the results of the trial, to continue using this technology to help reduce leakage. Read more.