Conclusion 10

Ofwat told us that, while it had not made anywhere near enough progress, it was starting to see the worst performing companies, such as Thames Water, beginning to make improvements. Despite a poor start to the current five-year planning period, it now expects Thames Water to meet its targets for 2020, partly as a result of some tough enforcement action from Ofwat, involving returning £120 million to customers because it felt Thames Water was not paying enough attention to leakage.17 Ofwat cited the National Infrastructure Commission recommendation that leakage should be halved by 2050. It told us that the 16% target by 2025 was one milestone towards that and that water companies have agreed to a further milestone of reducing leakage by a third by 2030.18