Water PR24 price redeterminations
Ofwat has referred its 2024 price reviews (PR24) for 5 water companies to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for redetermination.
Administrative timetable
Published on 8 April 2025, in accordance with Rule 7 of Water References: Competition and Markets Authority Rules (CMA204). Any revisions made to the timetable will be communicated to the main parties and published on this website.
| Date | Action |
|---|---|
| 17 March 2026 | Statutory deadline (with extension) for final determinations |
| Mid-January 2026 | Target for publication of final determinations |
| Mid-December 2025 | Target for issue of reports to Ofwat and publication of summary |
| Mid-October 2025 | Deadline for responses to provisional determinations |
| Mid-September 2025 | Publish provisional determinations |
| Late June/ early July 2025 | Main party hearings and additional third party hearings if required |
| Late May/ early June 2025 | Deadline for main party and third party submissions on CMA approach |
| Mid/late-May 2025 | CMA approach document published |
| Mid-May 2025 | Deadline for disputing companies’ focused replies to Ofwat’s responses and Ofwat’s focused replies to disputing companies’ submissions on other disputing companies’ statements of case |
| 29 April 2025 | Deadline for Ofwat’s responses to the disputing companies’ statements of case, and disputing companies’ submissions on other disputing companies’ statements of case |
| 22 April 2025 | Deadline for third party submissions on the issues raised in the references and statements of case |
| 21 March 2025 | Disputing companies submit statements of case |
| 18 March 2025 | References made by Ofwat to CMA |
Notice of extension
The CMA has asked Ofwat for an extension of up to 6 months, which Ofwat has granted, given the nature and scale of the work involved in five water industry price control references and the associated procedural complexity.
- (8.4.25)
The CMA will endeavour to carry out the work in less than 12 months if possible.
Call for third party submissions
25 March 2025: The CMA is inviting submissions from third parties on the issues raised in the 5 Ofwat references and statements of case of the 5 disputing companies, and any other issues that the CMA should consider as part of its redeterminations.
The deadline for these submissions is 5:30pm on Tuesday 22 April 2025. The CMA reserves the right to reject third party submissions made after the deadline.
Please send submissions to waterPR24references@cma.gov.uk.
Any further invitations for third party submissions and updates on the redetermination process will be published on this case page.
Disputing companies’ statements of case
The disputing companies submitted their statements of case, setting out their arguments and evidence, to the CMA on 21 March 2025. We have published the non-sensitive versions of their main submission documents:
- (25.3.25)
- (25.3.25)
- (25.3.25)
- (25.3.25)
- (25.3.25)
Special reference group appointed
18 March 2025: the CMA has appointed a special reference group.
References from Ofwat
On 19 December 2024, Ofwat published its final determinations on the price review, which includes controls that limit what water companies can charge their customers in England and Wales for the period 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2030.
6 water companies rejected Ofwat’s final determinations and asked Ofwat to refer them to the CMA for a redetermination. On 18 March 2025, Ofwat made 5 references to the CMA.
The references received from Ofwat are:
- (19.3.25)
- (19.3.25)
- (19.3.25)
- (19.3.25)
- (19.3.25)
A timetable will be drawn up as soon as practicable following the appointment of the special reference group. Information on the timing and arrangements for submissions by third parties will also be published in due course. The references from Ofwat specify a 6-month timeframe for the CMA to produce its report on the references. This can be extended by Ofwat by up to a further 6 months following a request by the CMA where Ofwat is satisfied that there are special reasons to do so.
Further information
On 19 February 2025, following notification that Ofwat had been asked to refer disputed final determinations to the CMA, we published a blog post that explains our role.
Contacts
Any queries or submissions relating to this matter should be sent to: waterPR24references@cma.gov.uk.
Any media enquiries should be directed to a member of our Press Office: press@cma.gov.uk.
Personal data
The CMA may collect, use and share personal data for its investigations. This includes processing personal data for the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.
For more information about how the CMA handles personal information, please see the CMA’s Personal Information Charter.
Updates to this page
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Administrative timetable and notice of extension published.
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Disputing Companies’ statements of case, and call for third party submissions published.
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First published.