More of our customers are telling us that they are happy with the service that we provide. Overall customer satisfaction is at its highest level for many years and we’re working hard to improve our systems to make it easier for our customers to contact us and to ensure they receive a high level of service when they do.
It’s important that we take account of those more vulnerable sectors of the community, or those who need extra help, and we have a range of schemes for people who have additional needs or are in financial hardship.
Our ExtraCare scheme continues to provide services for elderly people and those with visual or hearing impairments, while we have a range of payment options - from direct debit to PayPoint schemes - to ensure our customers can choose one which works for them.
We fit water meters free of charge, providing many customers with a way to have more say about how much water they use and pay for.
Addressing affordability, our vulnerable customer scheme offers metered household customers which comply with certain criteria the option to ask to pay the same as an average household, rather than charges based on water usage. More than 3,000 of our customers are currently charged in this way. More than 12,000 people have signed up to our Arrears Allowance scheme where we match the customer’s debt pound for pound.
We have long-standing collection agreements with Oldham, Warrington and Rochdale Councils and have recently signed a new five-year agreement with Stockport Council. We understand from discussions with our regulator Ofwat that the newly formed Stockport collection agreement is one of a very few to be signed by the industry in recent years.
We’re also improving in other areas important to our customers, such as leakage, where we’ve met our target for the third consecutive year.
A new way of assessing charges for commercial organisations introduced this year has proved challenging. Site area charging calculates surface water and highway drainage based upon the size of the premises. Feedback from customers has made us think differently about how best to apply the charge and what we can do to help our customers understand the implications. Working with customers, we will introduce the charge over a three year period, by gradually phasing out rateable values and standing charges.
In recognition of the current economic climate and the increasing financial demands on our customers, we will continue to enhance our focus in 2009/10 on ensuring our services are accessible to customers (including addressing the issues of affordability) and the contribution we make to the communities in which our employees work and live.
In our non regulated business we are working to meet, and where possible exceed, tough satisfaction targets. We continue to look for opportunities to apply our core skills on an asset-light basis. Early in the year we extended the contract with Southern Water to 2015 and we are also pleased to have been selected as the preferred bidder for a 27-year municipal solid waste treatment contract in Derbyshire.