At the same time, we have to make sure the bills our customers pay remain affordable, and that we continue to ensure the long-term resilience of our water services to meet these challenges.
Looking to the future
We're looking to the future and preparing our business plan for 2025 to 2030. This sets out the investments we have planned, over the next five years, to deliver the services and improvements to our environment you expect - at a price your household or business can afford to pay.
We have a long history of delivering clean water services to customers across our socially and geographically diverse Cambridge and South Staffs regions. We are a successful, privately owned, water-only company that provides an essential public service, and our customers trust us to always do this in a way that is both efficient and that offers best value.
Our small size, relative to most of the other companies in the England and Wales water sector, and our strong local focus means we are embedded at the heart of the communities we serve, and always strive to deliver the services that are important to our customers.
Click here to read our business plan for 2025 to 2030
Click here to read our long-term delivery strategy for 2025-2050
This includes working hard to protect and enhance the environment that we all rely on and enjoy. To view the additional documents submitted to Ofwat with our business plan, please follow this link.
Latest information on our PR24 business plan
On 11 July 2024, we received Ofwat's initial decision (our 'draft determination') on our business plan for the five years from 2025 to 2030. We welcome that Ofwat has recognised the ambition of our plan in the round in terms of how we will secure the water future for our customers, our communities and the environment.
Since receiving our draft determination, we have considered it in detail. While we are not challenging Ofwat's price review framework, there are some areas where we are pushing back - and where we require Ofwat to respond to our concerns. These relate to:
We will continue to work with Ofwat to resolve these issues. Ofwat is due to make its final decisions on our business plan on 19 December 2024. The next five-year planning period will start on 1 April 2025.
Below, you can read through the documents we submitted to Ofwat in our representation to their Draft Determination, in August 2024.
Modelling1. PR24 Draft Determination representation. Developer services reconciliation model SSC
2 PR24 Draft Determination representation. RCV adjustments model South Staffs Water
3 PR24 Draft Determination representation. Cost of new debt reconciliation SSC
4 PR24 Draft Determination representation. Cost sharing total costs reconciliation SSC
5 PR24 Draft Determination representation. Green Recovery cost allowance adjustment model SSC
6 PR24 Draft Determination representation. Green recovery time value of money adjustment model v1.4 SSC
7 PR24 Draft Determination representation. Land sales South Staffs Water
8 PR24 Draft Determination representation. Other adjustments SSC
9 PR24 Draft Determination representation. PR19 WINEP recon model SSC
10 PR24 Draft Determination representation. Residential retail reconciliation SSC
11 PR24 Draft Determination representation. Revenue adjustments model South Staffs Water
12 PR24 Draft Determination representation. RPI CPIH wedge model South Staffs Water
13 PR24 Draft Determination representation. Strategic Regional Water Reconciliation SSC
14 PR24 Draft Determination representation. Tax reconciliation SSC
15 PR24 Draft Determination. ODI performance model 2024-25 South Staffs Water updated forecasts
16 PR24 Draft Determination representation. Revenue forecasting incentive SSC
Representation Documents1 SSC Draft Determination 01. Representations on Ofwat's draft determination redacted
2 SSC Draft Determination 02. PR24 BP tables v6
3 SSC Draft Determination 03. PR24 New additional business plan data tables post draft determination collection
4 SSC Draft Determination 04. Data table commentary
5 SSC-Draft Determination 06. Enhancement costs supporting evidence redacted
6 SSC Draft Determination 07. PA PCC critique
7 SSC Draft Determination 08. Oxera letter of assurance
8 SSC Draft Determination 09. Baringa treatment of energy costs in AMP8
9 SSC Draft Determination 10. Past delivery
10 SSC Draft Determination 11. Risk and return RoRE
11 SSC Draft Determination 12. Regional demand management activity
12 SSC Draft Determination 13. Company briefing note
13 SSC Draft Determination 15. Reading guide
Delivering for our customers
Making sure we deliver our customers’ priorities and preferences is central to everything we do. We use a wide range of tailored engagement approaches to help us understand their needs – including those of future customers, those who may find themselves in vulnerable circumstances or who have been traditionally hard to reach, and our non-household and business customers. Across the business, we also engage regularly with a wide range of stakeholders, including customer advocacy groups, environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs), supply partners, local and national government officials, and regulators. We carefully evaluate all the insights we gain from our customers and other stakeholders to help us make the best possible decisions and shape our plans.
As a long-term business, we are always planning for the future using a range of different scenarios. This enables us to adapt quickly to changing circumstances. We have set our business plan for the five years from 2025 to 2030 within this long-term context, ensuring we can always deliver the right investment in the right way, at the right time – and in a way that represents the best value. This is how we will secure the long-term water future for our customers, our communities and the environment.
Innovation is key to success
We have traditionally been at the forefront of the water sector in terms of efficiency and delivering value for our customers. We want to make sure we always spend our customers’ money wisely and see innovation as critical to enabling us to continue doing more for less now and in the future. Key to this is creating a culture of innovation as an essential part of our business as usual activities, including sourcing funds from innovation competitions and other third parties. We consider this will help us to drive improvements in the services our customers have told us they want and are willing to pay for.
Looking ahead, we want to be a sustainable, net zero carbon business that always delivers value for money for customers, and long-term value for society and the environment. This means generating positive impacts for local communities, while also working in partnership with others to ensure we leave the environment in a better state for future generations. And it means leading by example to ensure social and environmental factors are at the heart of all our decision-making.
Our commitment to our customers
We are committed to delivering the best business plan for our customers, the environment and our business. This means continuing to invest in sector-leading assets to enable us to continue delivering high-quality water and excellent service to customers now and in the future. But we face a number of challenges that mean it is more important than ever for us to adopt a long-term adaptive planning strategy:
At the same time, we have to make sure the bills our customers pay remain affordable, and that we continue to ensure the long-term resilience of our water services to meet these challenges.