Ofwat and commentators are suggesting that this will be an especially tough periodic review process, with less ‘easy money’ to be made.

The Ofwat  methodology sets out:

• our expectations and requirements for companies preparing their business plans to meet the needs of their customers from 2020 to 2025 and beyond;
• how these expectations form the basis for the tests that we will use to assess company business plans;
• the approach that we will use if we need to intervene in those plans to ensure that companies deliver the step change required by customers; and
• how our assessment will flow through into companies’ price limits, service commitments and the wider incentive framework.

The PR19 methodology is based on the policy set out in our Water 2020 regulatory framework decision document, which covers issues including:

• challenges facing the sector now and longer term; and
• how we see markets and economic regulation evolving to enable and encourage companies to address these challenges.

Methodology documents published – Summaries

Executive summary

Delivering UK Government priorities for the English water sector through our 2019 price review draft methodology

Delivering Welsh Government priorities for the Welsh water sector through our 2019 price review draft methodology

And lots of supplementary material