Cambridge Water complaints surged by 77% over the last year
The complaints were mostly about bill disputes at metred households
Cambridge Water's seen a surge in complaints in the last year, according to a consumer group.
The Consumer Council for Water (CCW) says it's seen a 77% increase in the number of complaints it had received about the company, with most of these disputes relating to bills from metered households.
Cambridge Water was the only water-only provider to be rated as poor on both total complaints and its handling of them.
The CCW's annual report found unresolved household complaints to water firms have spiked amid discontent over sewage spills, billing mistakes and problems with water meters.
The number of complaints escalated to the Consumer Council for Water (CCW) by households in England and Wales who failed to achieve a resolution from their supplier rose by almost a third (29%) in 2023-24 - its highest level for nearly a decade, the watchdog said.
Concerns about firms' environmental performance and water meters had fuelled the steep increase, with customers having exhausted their supplier's two-stage complaints process by the time they turned to the CCW.
CCW's annual report shows that customers made a total of 222,956 complaints directly to water companies in England and Wales.
What do Cambridge Water say?
In response to the CWW's findings, Cambridge Water say they're disappointed customer service levels have dropped, as it's "vitally important" to the company.
They're also also working closely with the consumer group to address the issues raised and have taken on board the comments from the report.
Focus for Cambridge Water is said to be reducing the volume of complaints coming into the company by "providing consistent, high-quality service in the first instance and improving how we respond to customers when they do contact us with a complaint."
Interim Customer Delivery Director, Gary Kinsella, said: “Customer service is at the very heart of our business, and we are committed to finding ways of delivering better services to our customers. Each customer complaint is a chance for us to improve, and, whilst we’re happy to report an improvement already this year, we still strive to do even better in future.”
Cambridge Water say they're proud to serve clean drinking water to around 350,000 customers in and around Cambridge.
For the year 2023/24, the water company's received just over 1,200 complaints which equates to 0.88% of their customers.
They say so far, for this reporting year, they've achieved a 44% reduction in complaints across all channels.