Research into Third Party Intermediaries (TPIs)

TPIs play a key role in many competitive markets and we believe they have significant potential benefits to bring to water and wastewater retail markets, especially through encouraging and facilitating competition. We want to enable TPIs to be a strong and positive driver of effective market engagement and competition, while at the same time supporting our objective of customers having trust and confidence in the market. We therefore want the successful Contractor to consider how we can unlock the benefits that TPIs can bring to water customers. For example, our market monitoring suggests that customers who are searching the market find it difficult to compare provider. So we want the Contractor to consider how active customers can use TPIs to navigate the market to obtain better deals or services. In addition, whilst there are default tariff protections in place for customers who don't engage in the market, we recognise that there is the scope for TPIs to help these customers to engage with the market and get them better deals. We would like the successful Contractor to consider where barriers hinder the effective functioning of TPIs, or customers' engagement with them, and therefore prevent customers from accessing their benefits. When carrying out the assessment of barriers we want the Contactor to also provide a range of potential options or actions that could be implemented to overcome barriers and to suggest ways that any risks arising from these options can be mitigated effectively. The Contractor should consider whether options or actions can be delivered by Ofwat alone or if a holistic approach is needed, requiring the engagement and involvement of a range of parties. We expect the successful Contractor to undertake this work through a combination of stakeholder engagement and desk-based research both within the water and wastewater markets and other regulated sectors. We will be able to provide the successful Contractor with evidence and intelligence that we have already gathered from the market.