(10 years, 1 month ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Dan Rogerson)
The Water Act 2014 enables the introduction of retail competition for water and sewerage services for non-household customers in England. Open Water Market Ltd (OWML) has been formed to help enable delivery of this new market. It is anticipated that OWML will be designated a “public” entity.
New licence conditions have been agreed with the water companies to ensure OWML can raise sufficient income to fund its total operating costs in full from September 2014.
Parliamentary approval for additional resources of £2,919,950 for this new expenditure will be sought in a supplementary estimate for the water services regulation authority (Ofwat). Pending that approval, urgent expenditure estimated at £2,919,950 will be met by a repayable cash advance from the contingencies fund.