WELSH Water received its Final Determination from the industry regulator, Ofwat, on the company’s Business Plan for 2015-20 yesterday.

The Final Determination sets the price limit that Welsh Water can charge customers for their water and wastewater services between 2015 and 2020, and also the service targets that the company are expected to deliver.

Every five years, water and wastewater bills are set by Ofwat based on Business Plans submitted by water companies across England and Wales.

Welsh Water’s Business Plan committed to keep average household bills at least 1% below inflation between 2015 and 2020 whilst also investing £1.5 billion in its extensive network of assets and helping more than 100,000 customers who genuinely struggle to pay their bills.

The Business Plan was endorsed by 94% of customers during an engagement and research programme which was overseen by an independent Customer Challenge Group.

Chris Jones, Chief Executive of Welsh Water, said:

“During this challenging price review, we needed to balance a number of priorities between making service improvements, safeguarding the environment whilst also keeping bills affordable by ensuring that we deliver a decade of below inflation price increases by 2020.

“Our customers have played a key part in shaping a very ambitious Business Plan that sets challenging performance targets for us between 2015 and 2020.”