Void Properties & Poor Occupier Data

Sagacity warns that water companies are risking fines, price hikes and reputational damage, as Ofwat and government deadlines loom

As COVID-19 plunges a quarter of the UK into poverty, water companies should plug gaps in data to help identify financially vulnerable customers

Sagacity, a data-enabled technology consultancy, today warned that water companies need to act now to close gaps in their customer records to meet PR19 deadlines on 31st March. Ofwat has set targets to encourage water companies to ensure they are charging everyone for consuming their services. While statistics show that circa 648,000 UK properties are officially empty in the UK, Sagacity has observed through its work in the water industry that they are registering a significantly higher number of void (i.e. vacant) sites than those being reported in the government statistics; this would suggest many properties are not being billed, despite being occupied. Further to this, there are an unknown number of gap sites, where water and/or wastewater services are being consumed, but the property is not even on a water company’s system and is therefore not billed.

Water companies must also work towards the industry target of getting 1.3 million people in England and Wales onto the WaterSure bill-capping scheme, and other social tariffs, by 2025. At present, 20 million people claim DWP benefits; a figure that is likely to increase as the economic impact of COVID-19 takes its toll on the economy. Many of these people are entitled to financial support but do not claim; either because they do not know that there is support available, or they do not want to ask for help. This is why water companies need to proactively reach out to these customers and move them onto the right tariffs. However, Sagacity warns that data quality issues and a lack of maturity when handling complex data sets is making it almost impossible to identify them, leaving millions struggling to pay.

“Access to water is a basic human right. With COVID-19 pushing the number of UK citizens living in poverty up to more than 15 million – almost a quarter of the population – providing support has never been more important,” said Anita Dougall, CEO & Founding Partner, Sagacity. “However, people are not always forthcoming when it comes to asking for help; it’s important that those who need help are proactively approached. On the other side, we have those who are perfectly capable of paying, but don’t, because they are not being billed. The task for fixing these issues isn’t easy.

Water companies have millions of customers, so establishing who is occupying a void site and not being billed presents a huge data challenge. Going a step further to identify which customers are eligible for support and need to be moved onto a different tariff is even more complex. Most water companies do not have the data maturity to handle this, which is understandable, as data is not their core business.”

This lack of visibility is extremely damaging to the customer experience, leading to costly customer complaints. Incomplete data – for example, the wrong occupier name, misspelt names, issues with addresses and so on – mean bills often fail to be delivered to the right occupier, leaving bills unpaid. Many others are billed in error for properties they have already vacated – in extreme cases, these customers can find themselves being escalated to a collections agency and receiving damage to their credit ratings. The PR19 legislation used to govern Water suppliers, puts more of a focus on direct customer feedback than ever before. As part of this, Ofwat is expected to publish the first annual C-Mex customer experience tables in April, laying the truth bare for all to see.

“Water companies need a clear picture of who they are supplying, but this often requires a lot of data detective work to join the dots across customer records,” Dougall continues. “To be successful, they firstly need to clean up any ‘dirty data’ to ensure they have all the correct details for their customers. This will greatly improve the customer experience, helping to reduce customer complaints. Next, they must go beyond their own books to enrich their data using third party capabilities to highlight which of their void sites are showing signs of occupancy, for example by cross checking electoral records, or even bank or phone account registrations, as well as identifying those customers that should be put onto a social tariff, and given government support; They must then use analytics to match these records accurately, before creating a process for contacting and onboarding customers or assigning them to the right tariffs. It’s no mean feat and it will take time – the clock is ticking, with 31st March fast approaching, so water companies need to act now.”