Introduction 1. Every five years, Ofwat decides how much revenue companies are allowed for providing and improving water and sewerage services. This, in turn, impacts the customer pricing, business and investment decisions of individual companies. Companies that disagree with Ofwat’s price control decisions can ask the Competition and Markets Authority (the CMA ) to reassess and form conclusions on the price control decisions for those companies (known as ‘redeterminations’). 2. The CMA has been asked to redetermine price controls by five companies: Anglian Water; Northumbrian Water; South East Water; Southern Water; and Wessex Water (together the Disputing Companies ).
1 While it is open to us to reconsider any aspect of the price control decisions for these companies, in practice we need to focus our work and resources to complete the redeterminations fairly, efficiently and at proportionate cost within the statutory timeframes (which we refer to as our ‘overriding objective’). 3. Having considered initial submissions and information from the Disputing Companies, Ofwat and third parties (including customer and investor groups), we are publishing this document to explain how we propose to approach the redeterminations, including in particular the issues we intend to prioritise and deprioritise.
We invite views on our proposed approach and prioritisation to inform the focus of our work on the PR24 redeterminations . 4. The framework for our redeterminations is set out in our procedural rules and guide. 2 In particular, the guidance sets out our overriding objective to carry out the redeterminations fairly, efficiently and at proportionate cost within the statutory timeframes. 3 5. The main parties in these redeterminations are Ofwat and the five Disputing Companies. The five Disputing Companies have rejected Ofwat’s determinations and have provided extensive and differing reasons for doing so.
Given the nature and scale of the work involved in these five redeterminations and the associated procedural complexity, and the time we have available in which to carry out our redeterminations, we intend to adopt a proportionate approach to the prioritisation of issues. 4 1 Anglian Water Services Limited ( Anglian ), Northumbrian Water Limited ( Northumbrian ), South East Water Limited ( South East ), Southern Water Services Limited ( Southern ) and Wessex Water Services Limited ( Wessex ). 2 See New rules and guidance for water references (10 December 2024) . 3 Competition and Markets Authority Water Reference Rules (CMA204), December 2024 , ( Rules ) Rule 4.1.
4 Competition and Markets Authority Water Reference Guide (CMA205), December 2024 , ( Guide ) paragraphs 3.13– 3.16. 4