What portfolio information is required?

The water market opens to full competition in April and this will allow owners of non-domestic properties to change their water and wastewater supplier. In recent months there have been many events happening with both Southern and Thames water exiting the retail market.

In August 2016 we highlighted that we would be providing a water procurement framework of our own and we are pleased to announce that the framework will be going live in the next month. The framework consists of multiple suppliers, accessed via a mini-tender, who will compete to supply your portfolio of properties. We can run your mini-tender either as an individual portfolio or amalgamated with others to gain aggregated benefits.

Overall our aim is to deliver the following benefits with our framework:

• Savings on price.

• Improved billing and customer services.

• Support for water saving services.

• OJEU compliance.

What portfolio information is required?

Now is the time to collect information on your water portfolio. To access our Framework data will be required and you will need to make decisions around which sites are included. For example, if you are a council with schools, will you look to include schools as part of your tendered portfolio?

We are already seeing suppliers improving their services and preparing to compete for your custom. However, customers with the most accurate data are likely to attract the most competitive bids, so we advise you to focus on collating water data as soon as possible.

The list below shares the essential and desirable elements which suppliers will be looking for in order to give the best bid.

Portfolio Information

Essentials:

• Site name and address
• Supplier name
• Supplier reference number
• Meter Serial Number (MSN)

Desirables:

• Rateable value or meter
• Water meter size
• Annual consumption
• % return to sewer
• Trade effluent (swimming pool)