Water companies in England and Wales still have much work ahead of them – despite improving performance and pumping over £4.3 billion into maintaining existing assets and investing in new facilities in 2006-2007, according to Ofwat.
The water regulator has examined annual returns from the 22 water companies and found that investment was up nearly a quarter on the previous year. So far, after two years of the current five year price review, investment remains below the levels anticipated, mainly in respect of improvement schemes. But the majority of companies are investing what is needed in most areas to maintain the standard of service expected by customers.