Guernsey Water looking to freeze rates in 2019
WATER rates could be frozen next year after Guernsey Water made a £377,000 surplus last year.
The utility had set itself a savings and efficiency target of £300,000 and in the wake of the surplus it is now looking at how it can share these savings with customers.
Its annual report and accounts reveals that it achieved a £428,000 reduction in operating costs, which helped it exceed its target.
‘Guernsey Water is in excellent shape,’ said general manager Steve Langlois.
‘Importantly for customers, in delivering the second year of our business plan we started to develop a culture of continuous improvement in our services.
‘This means that things will continue getting even better for our customers in the future.’
The second year of its business plan saw it investing £4.5m. on maintaining and improving infrastructure, such as investing in the sewerage system in Vale Road which enabled more wastewater to be transferred to Belle Greve’s wastewater centre.
This reduced the risk of flooding and sewer overflows, said the utility, providing protection for homes and the environment from pollution in the north.
Work has also begun on developing a surface water management strategy, which the utility said will ensure that customers are better protected from flooding and that wastewater returns safely to the environment.
Bringing Juas water treatment works back on line later this year will see further reductions in operational costs.
‘On average, our metered customers spent just £1.15 per day on our water and wastewater services in 2017,’ said Mr Langlois.
‘Considering the complexity of our day-to-day operations and the amount of investment we make in our infrastructure every year, this is fantastic value for money. But the really good news for customers is that we are looking into whether we can share the savings we made last year with them by freezing their overall bills in 2019.’
A ‘serious imbalance’ in the income Guernsey Water receives from customers’ wastewater charges and the amount it spends on wastewater service is being looked into.
While the average metered customer spends 28p a day on charges, it costs 63p a day to provide wastewater services.
But while it costs the utility 51p a day to provide water services, the average metered customer spends 87p a day to receive these services.
‘We are considering how we address this imbalance,’ said Mr Langlois.
The report also states that drinking water standards remained high last year, at 99.85%, while customer satisfaction, as measured by the Customer Service Institute for the first time, was 79.5%, which compared favourably with the UK utilities sector average of 78.2%
