Published date: 30 August 2017
Awarded contract - This means that the contract has been awarded to a supplier.
Contract summary
Industry
Business and management consultancy services - 79410000
Location of contract
West Midlands, London
Value of contract
£0 to £103,760
Procurement reference
PROC.01.0558
Published date
30 August 2017
Closing date
7 June 2017
Contract start date
4 July 2017
Contract end date
15 October 2017
Contract type
Service contract
Procedure type
Other:
Contract is suitable for SMEs?
Yes
Contract is suitable for VCSEs?
No
Description
Objectives
The objective of this work is to inform our PR19 approach to assess the current efficiency of residential retail services- in England and Wales in the water sector through comparison with other sectors, in advance of the 2019 price review. The work will focus on the assessment of bad debt, debt management and customer service costs (bill handling and call centre costs) of water companies. Data on bad debt, doubtful debt, revenue recovery and revenue written off is available at Ofwat database. We expect the contractor to produce a report and provide recommendations that are practical to implement in PR19.
Scope and Key Tasks
The project consists of two work packages:
Work package 1: assessment of bad debt levels and bad debt management practice
The Contractor will assess the efficiency of bad debt levels and bad debt management practices in the water sector relative to other sectors.
- Assess bad debt levels and trends in the water sector and how they compare to other sectors.
- If levels are higher than in other sectors, to what extent is it due to factors within company control or beyond company control? Would better company management practices in the water sector reduce level of bad debts?
- Identify efficient level of bad debts in the sector, based on comparison with other sectors and evidence on revenue collection and debt management practices.
- Review revenue collection and debt management practices in the water sector and make recommendations on how these can be improved.
- Develop an assessment framework for Ofwat that can be used at PR19 to help inform our view of the efficiency of water companies in managing revenue recovery and bad debts.
- Identify best practice with respect to debt management and recovery in other sectors. And provide recommendations for Ofwat on whether its guidelines on dealing with customers in debt should be updated.
Work package 2: assessment of customer services costs
The Contractor will assess the efficiency of customer service costs (bill handling and call centre costs) in the water sector relative to other sectors. The Contractor will recommend whether and to what extent we can use information from other sectors to inform the cost efficiency challenge that we set to water companies in respect to this service.
More information
Attachments
-
- R PROC 01.0558 signed by both parties.pdf
- Signed contract
- Contract
Additional text
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Please note that this is a call-off contract so it is difficult to quantify exact spend.
Also that the PROC number PROC.01.0543 was incorrectly used and should be PROC.01.0566. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.
Award information
Awarded date
27 June 2017
Contract start date
4 July 2017
Contract end date
15 October 2017
Total value of contract
£103,760
This contract was awarded to 1 supplier.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Address
1 Embankment Place
London
WC2N 6RHReference
None
Supplier is SME?
No
Supplier is VCSE?
No
About the buyer
Address
Centre City Tower
7 Hill Street
Birmingham
B5 4UA
England
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Closing: 7 June 2017
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