how the business model for water works

All UK domestic customers get their water from their regional water company. These are the guys that are always in the news. They provide clean drinking water to the network and treat wastewater from the network. The same is true for business customers in Northern Ireland.

For business customers in England and Scotland, things are different. Here, the regional water companies are often referred to as wholesalers. Between these wholesalers and business customers, sit retailers. Their job is to provide consolidated billing, meter reading services and customer service to the end customer; that’s you.

This system or “market” opened in 2008 in Scotland and then England in 2017. But, customers in Wales can only switch if they use more than 50 million litres of water a year, that’s quite a lot!