Member Article

Square One gear up for water market deregulation

A North East based energy consultancy is gearing up for the water market opening up to competition in April 2017 after an extremely successful start to the year. Square One Utilities, based in Boldon Colliery, currently specialise in the procurement of gas and electricity, however, when the water market deregulates in April 2017 they will be offering their services in the procurement of water.

Currently the water market is regionalised with companies such as Northumbrian Water having a monopoly over their territory. In April 2017 this will be changing and the market will open up to competition, allowing business customers to ‘shop around’ for a better water price. It is expected this will incentivise the water companies to lower their water prices.

When the water market opened up to competition in Scotland in 2008 over £30 million worth of discounts were made available to commercial customers. The Scottish market is a lot smaller than the market in England, therefore the discounts are expected to be a lot higher than that in 2017.

Commercial Manager Alison Thomson said ’‘It is a very exciting time at Square One Utilities with huge plans for growth over the next 12 months. We have gained some excellent clients to our Square One family already this year.’’

’‘I was in the industry when the gas and electricity markets deregulated and it provided a huge opportunity for businesses to save money on their bills, I think we will see the same thing with the water market.’’

’‘Although the deregulation date is almost 11 months away, we have already begun looking at our clients water expenditures to put them in the perfect position to take advantage of the deregulation at the earliest possible opportunity.’’

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Joshua Boyes .