2 May 2007
The water regulator Ofwat has issued concerns over the proposed merger between Kent Water and South East Water, arguing that it will make it more difficult to assess whether the industry is competitive enough.
Issues like water bills can only be judged to be competitive if compared with individual companies and Ofwat believes that the merger of two suppliers will make judging a competitive rate harder.
This could have a negative impact on consumers as a lack of competition could lead to higher bills.
Ofwat is now working with the Competition Commission and the suppliers to "implement the remedies which are designed to go some way to offsetting the permanent loss of an independent comparator".
This could be achieved by providing customers of Kent Water and South East Water with a one-off £5 payment, as well as forcing the new merged supplier to make a £3.1million reduction to its operating costs.
© 2008 Adfero Ltd
Content for the uSwitch.com market news service is provided by a third party, Adfero Ltd. Whilst uSwitch.com makes reasonable efforts to check the reliability of this content, uSwitch.com does not guarantee the accuracy thereof or endorse the views or opinions given by Adfero Ltd, unless expressly stated otherwise.