Since I took early retirement from the Communications Workers Union 10 years ago, I have been a portfolio worker with a mix of appointments, mostly representing consumers and mostly in the communications sector. It is in the nature of portfolio working that the mix of responsibilities changes over time.<\/p>\n
I have just completed my four-year term as a member of the Board of Consumer Focus and later this year I will finish as the Member for England on the Communications Consumer Panel where I have served an astonishing eight years. So I have been looking for some new challenges. I was recently appointed a non-exective director of the Online Centres Foundation<\/a>. And I can now announce that I have just been chosen as the independent Chair of the Customer Challenge Group at South East Water<\/a>.<\/p>\n South East Water supplies drinking water to 2.1 million customers in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire. It is headquartered in the delightfully named town of Snodland in Kent which I have now visited.<\/p>\n The water regulator Ofwat has required all the 22 water companies in England and Wales to establish a Customer Challenge Group which will have a key role in the next price determination cycle that will result in new price controls for 2016-2020. I am really looking forward to the intellectual challenge of learning about the detail of a new sector and water is such a vital industry that I want to ensure that the consumer voice is at the heart of the company’s business plans and processes. But trust me to enter the water sector just as we have the worst drought in the south east in 30 years.<\/p>\n