Water Market opens up for competition

The water market opens up for competition in April 2017 and schools may be approached by third party intermediaries looking to engage with the competitive market. Schools need to ensure they are still compliant with the Public Contract Regulations.

ESPO has published the following briefing:

“Third Party Intermediaries (TPIs)

Customers are likely to be approached by a number of Third Party Intermediaries who will look to be able to engage with the competitive market in a number of ways. In electricity and gas, many customers engage an intermediary to help them fully engage with the market in the hope they will get a better price. Public Sector customers however need to ensure their compliance with the Public Contract Regulations as the spend levels will in most cases exceed the threshold. This is an area where we have regularly seen private sector TPI’s carrying out non compliant tenders where only the companies who will pay them a commission are invited to tender and providing little or no transparency in the way they remunerated. Schools and Academies have been the most common victims of these organisations in the Gas & Electricity markets and have paid fees far in excess of those which will be levied by the Public Sector Buying Organisations.

What can customers expect from the Public Sector Water Group?

The group will put in place a framework for the water services, waste water services, and ancillary goods and services. The latter will include new connections and site-works, metering, demand side management, water conservation and Automatic Meter Reading. Customers will be able to conduct Further Competitions with those who are awarded a place on the framework to choose their future supplier.

What should we do now to prepare for Water Competition?

Customers need to collate a list of their sites and meters in readiness for a Further Competition to take place in early 2017 once suppliers have been awarded a place on the framework. Many organisations will already have concise details of their water portfolio; however some will want to engage with their current water providers to ensure that the list is complete and to ensure that all sites will be captured in the initial tender exercise.”

If you need any further information with regards to this new market please contact Andrew Stanford on 0116 294 4043 or email a.stanford@espo.org.