Acceptability and Affordability Testing

As part of the process of developing its business plan for PR24 (2025-2030), our client, a water supplier, was required to complete Acceptability and Affordability Testing with its customers.

The objective of the research was to understand from customers which elements of the business plan warranted further investment, above and beyond the mandatory investments required by law.

Guidance was prescribed from Ofwat and CCW as to the type of engagement that would need to be conducted, which Impact followed closely throughout the project.

In line with the guidance, a two-phased approach was used to answer the objectives.

Phase 1: Online deliberative workshops and supplementary in-depth interviews with Household (HH) and Non-household (NHH) customers in our client’s operating region.

• • The household group contained 25 bill payers and 9 future bill payers, across a variety of different circumstances including location within our client’s region, social grade, housing tenure and whether or not a customer was metered. The NHH group contained nine organisations, each with less than 10 employees, across a mix industries and levels of water dependency.
  • 20 in-depth interviews were then conducted over Zoom; eight with financially vulnerable HH bill payers, eight with HH bill payers with a health vulnerability and four with larger NHH organisations. Six in-depth interviews also took place over the phone with HH The survey in Phase is currently in field, due for completion in August 2023. The results will be used to inform SES Water’s business plan, due for submission to Ofwat in late 2023. The aim of this testing was to customers without regular access to the internet.
  • All participants were asked to complete a pre-task activity consisting of reading materials and a short questionnaire.

Phase 2: A quantitative survey with 500 HH and 100 NHH customers. HH customers were contacted either by email, or by post, using a ‘push-to-web’ approach and NHH customers using telephone surveys. The learnings from Phase 1 were used when developing the survey instrument to be used in Phase 2.

The research showed to our client which areas of their business plan resonated most with customers, both HH and NHH. The findings were reviewed and signed off by the client’s Customer Challenge Group, before being used to inform their PR24 business plan.