The Customer Forum: Customer engagement in the Scottish water sector

The Customer Forum was set up in 2011 to carry out customer research, represent the interests of customers to Scottish Water and the economic regulator WICS, and to seek to agree a business plan with the company. It was set up with the agreement of all parties. The aims were to improve on previous price control approach, to find a new way of challenging the company and to bring greater customer input to bear. The constitution, expectations and timetable of the Forum were specified in some detail. WICS also provided many Guidance Notes about its own expectations. Financial tramlines were established to monitor performance during the forthcoming price control period. The process worked well, all parties worked constructively and agreement was reached on a business plan upon which the regulator subsequently proposed a price control. There is scope to apply the process in future and in other sectors.