Utilities firm still has much to do, says watchdog

WATER supplier United Utilities managed to reduce the number customer complaints handled by 16% last year, but still receives nearly double the industry’s average amount of complaints per customer, according to a new report by the Consumer Council for Water.

The firm received a total of 31,920 complaints during the year to March 31, down from 43,506 a year earlier. This is the second-highest level of complaints per customer of any of the UK’s 23 water suppliers.

Dame Yve Buckland, Chair of the Consumer Council for Water, said: “We’ve been working hard to put pressure on water companies, particularly those with poor complaint numbers, to improve their performance. We are beginning to see progress from many of them.

“Unfortunately, there are still a few companies who are letting their customers down when it comes to service.

“Although complaints to United Utilities dropped by 16 per cent last year the company is recovering from a period of high numbers of complaints. It has a lot of work to do to bring service levels more in line with the rest of the industry.

“The industry still has much more work to do and we will continue to call for improvements to ensure that the year-on-year trend of rising complaints is well and truly behind us.”