Consultation on the Draft Determination of the Mid-Term Review of NI Water’s PC21 Price Control

The Utility Regulator is the independent economic regulator for water and sewerage services in Northern Ireland. Our primary role within the water industry is to protect the interests of consumers, both today and in the future.

NI Water is a Government-owned company which is responsible for providing water and sewerage services to consumers in Northern Ireland.  Since it is the sole provider of these services, we undertake price controls which ensure NI Water has enough revenue to operate an efficient business that delivers what Northern Ireland consumers need. 

Our PC21 Final Determination was published in May 2021 and covers the six‑year period from 2021 to 2027.  It reflected the priorities set in the Department for Infrastructure’s Social and Environmental Guidance. It also ensured value for money by allowing NI Water the revenue required to support a deliverable investment plan which was efficient and affordable from a tariff perspective.

The Mid-Term Review was included in PC21 as the opportunity for NI Water to address any uncertainty that existed when the PC21 Final Determination was published in 2021.

This Draft Determination sets out our mid-term review provisional findings following our assessment of NI Water's submission. This consultation provides an opportunity for consumers and stakeholders to express their views on our provisional conclusions. 

Our Mid-Term Review proposes:

• Limited adjustments to output targets.
• An average tariff increase of 4.6% for non-domestic consumers in each of the last two years of the PC21 period to mitigate against an unprecedented increase in NI Water’s power costs. 
• A capital allowance of c£2.4bn in ‘money of the day’ prices (nominal) for the full price control period to maintain existing services and deliver the upgrades required to meet its quality, environmental and service level obligations. 

This PC21 Mid-Term Review Draft Determination is published as an open consultation document.  We have not posed any specific questions and instead invite consumers and stakeholders to express views on any particular aspect of the determination that they wish to.

The consultation period is eight weeks and written responses should be received no later than 12:00pm on Thursday 27 June 2024.

Responses should be emailed to Paul.Stewart@uregni.gov.uk and UREGNI_Water_Responses@uregni.gov.uk

Additional information

• Copies of all documents will be made available in large print, Braille, audio cassette and a variety of relevant minority languages if required.

• Your response may be made public by the Utility Regulator. If you do not want all or part of your response or name made public, please state this clearly in the response by marking your response as ‘CONFIDENTIAL’.

• If you want other information that you provide to be treated as confidential, please be aware that, under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), there is a statutory Code of Practice with which public authorities must comply and which deals, amongst other things, with obligations of confidence. In view of this, it would be helpful if you could explain to us why you regard the information you have provided as confidential.

• Information provided in response to this consultation, including personal information, may be subject to publication or disclosure in accordance with the access to information regimes (these are primarily the FOIA and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA)).

• As stated in the GDPR Privacy Statement for consumers and stakeholders, any personal data contained within your response will be deleted once the matter being consulted on has been concluded though the substance of the response may be retained.