2017/18 Wholesale Charges

Board Statement of Assurance and Statement of Significant Change

The South West Water Board of Directors publishes this Board Assurance Statement confirming that South West Water's wholesale charges and charges schemes are compliant with its legal obligations and consistent with Ofwat's Wholesale Charging and Charges Scheme Rules.

Statement of Significant Change

The Board and management recognise the importance of ensuring that when tariffs are set, unacceptable or unaffordable incidence impacts on particular classes of customer are kept to a minimum. The statement below details the small number of customers that may experience a bill increase of greater than 5% and the action South West Water will take to minimise the impact on these customers. The Board confirms that there is no significant change between the indicative wholesale tariffs published in September 2016 and the final wholesale charges.

2017/18 Wholesale charges information

From 1 September 2016 (following the amendment to the Water Industry Act 1991), Ofwat has a duty to set rules that wholesalers must follow when setting their charges for wholesale services. These wholesale charges documents are published in compliance with these rules. The documents include information about Special Agreements and the wholesale service standards that we must meet for non-household customers.

2017/18 Indicative Wholesale Charges

From April 2017, 1.2 million businesses and non-household customers of water companies wholly or mainly in England will be able to choose their retailer.

Water supply wholesalers are required to publish indicative charges for the wholesale services they provide to retailers, in line with Ofwat's proposed wholesale charging rules. The indicative wholesale charges are calculated and shown separately for South West Water and Bournemouth Water. The figures provided in the linked documents below are indicative only. They are intended for retailers of services to business customers and are not end-user tariffs. They are based on provisional information and an estimated RPI - they have yet to be finalised. Before being finalised, they will be subject to an updated demand forecast and the official RPI figure as at November will be applied. 2017/18 final tariffs for retailers, together with non-primary charges, will be published by 13 January 2017.

Board Statement of Assurance

South West Water's Board of Directors (the Board) confirms that South West Water's and Bournemouth Water's wholesale indicative charges are compliant with South West Water's legal obligations and consistent with Ofwat's charging rules.

The Board's Statement of Assurance on the tariff development process can be found below.

The Board has reviewed South West Water's bill impact analysis and understands that some of the increases resulting from the 2017/18 indicative wholesale charges exceed 5%. The Board has reviewed the impact assessment to analyse the bill impacts and the strategies for handling these impacts


Special Agreements

In accordance with section 142(6A) of the Water Industry Act 1991 all water companies are required to notify Ofwat of any new Special Agreements that they enter into with their customers.

Ofwat's Information Note 16/02 sets out the information that companies will need to publish on indicative wholesale access charges for 2017/18. This includes publication of information on any new Special Agreements that have been entered in to.

For the purpose of compliance with this requirement, information on any new Special Agreements is shown below.