Our Customer Challenge Group
The Customer Challenge Group (CCG) is an independent body. They provide thorough reporting and commentary to all our customers, the public and Ofwat. CCG members have been selected from a cross-section of customers, regulators and other groups who play an important part in the life of our region. Every year, the CCG gives its view on how well we’re meeting its commitments. They provide a formal report to our regulator, Ofwat, in response to consultations and questions. They also comment on our future plans.
Our members
Sukhvinder Kaur-Stubbs - Chair
Sukhvinder is Chair in Common (designate) of Kingston NHS Foundation Trust and Hounslow and Richmond NHS Trust. She is also Chair of Regeneration at the London Legacy Development Corporation and a Board Member of the Government's Regulator of Social Housing. Previously, Sukhvinder was CEO of the Barrow Cadbury Trust and of the Runnymede Trust promoting equality, diversity and social inclusion. She has a track record of supporting and working with a range of local charities serving those living in disadvantaged areas.
Sukhvinder is a community champion determined to advocate for all consumers and particularly those at greatest risk of vulnerability. In her previous roles at EnergyWatch and the Government watchdog Consumer Futures, Sukhvinder secured stronger performance from utilities on behalf of their customers. Sukhvinder led on regulatory policies for marginalised groups at the Cabinet Office Better Regulation Executive. She is knowledgeable about the water and waste industry having served two terms on the Board of Severn Trent Water.
Catherine Jones
Catherine is currently the Consumer Council for Water's (CCW) Head of Company Engagement for the South of England. She works with a number of companies, putting consumers at the heart of business decisions, fulfilling CCW’s mission to ensuring people are well-informed, treated fairly and have confidence in their water services.
Catherine joined CCW’s consumer relations team in 2008, working to resolve individual cases and improve complaint outcomes. She has worked on projects including the introduction of adjudication, sharing best practice across a range of consumer priority issues and improving the end to end customer journey.
Dr Charlotte Duke
Appointed: January 2022
Charlotte is a leading expert in behavioural economics and joins Thames Water Customer Challenge Group with over 15 years experience in customer behaviour. Charlotte is a Partner at London Economics, a consulting firm providing economic advice to the private and public sector internationally. Before moving to the UK, Charlotte was an advisor to the Victorian Government in Australia where she worked on water and land protection.
"As a behavioural economist I understand we are all unique and as water customers we all play an important role in the protection of our water, land and biodiversity’. I look forward to working with Thames as a voice of the customer and to challenge and grow Thames Water’s listening and engagement with water customers."
David Brindle
Appointed: January 2022
David is a journalist and former public services editor of The Guardian, where he won a number of awards for his writing on social policy issues. He advises on strategic communications and is a regular conference chair and speaker. He has been a board member of national charities, social enterprises and housing associations for almost 30 years and currently chairs Ambient Support, which provides services across England for older people and those with learning disabilities and mental health issues. The welfare of people at risk of exclusion continues to be his overriding concern.
Jeremy Crook OBE
Appointed: January 2022
Jeremy is the Chief Executive of Action for Race Equality, a London based national charity that supports young people from ethnic minority backgrounds to realise their full potential in education and have successful careers. Social mobility is very important to him, and he wants to see all young people have opportunities to succeed and not be held back because of bias and discrimination in the workplace. They work with other charities, schools, local councils, government and employers to help make our country fairer and more inclusive.
Jeremy is Black British (mixed heritage) and despite leaving school with limited qualifications he went on to attain a BA (Hons) and MA. He started working in the charity sector 35 years ago in the West Midlands and moved to London in 1990. Jeremy has had secondment spells with the Department for Education and HM Prison and Probation Service. He is proud to serve as a trustee for the West Ham United Foundation.
Monica Wilson
Appointed: January 2022
Monica is an experienced policy professional. She has spent over 20 years in the civil service working on a diverse range of policy and delivery issues, including better regulation, citizen engagement and public value.
She is passionate about inclusion, and is a strong supporter of apprenticeships as a driver of social mobility and organisational development. She has served as a trustee of a debt advice charity and is active in her local community. Monica is also a mum of two young boys.
Nisha Arora
Appointed: January 2022
Nisha joined the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in February 2018 and is Director of Consumer & Retail Policy, responsible for developing and maintaining the conduct rules for retail financial services. Nisha led the FCA’s work to protect consumers impacted by the pandemic. She is responsible for the FCA’s consumer protection strategy, including the FCA’s proposals for a new Consumer Duty, vulnerability guidance and consumer insight, helping to ensure that the lived experiences and diverse needs of financial services customers are understood and met. Nisha is also responsible for oversight of the wider regulatory family (including the Financial Ombudsman Service and Financial Services Compensation Scheme).
Prior to joining the FCA, Nisha was a Senior Director at the Competition and Markets Authority, where she oversaw its consumer protection and enforcement work and, as a female senior leader of Indian origin, established its Equality, Diversity and Inclusion group. Nisha was also President of the International Consumer and Enforcement Protection network, coordinating cross-border regulatory actions to protect consumers across the globe. Previously, Nisha served as a senior Director at the Office of Fair Trading, and as a senior legal adviser in the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and the Cabinet Office. She trained as a solicitor with Denton Hall. Nisha was born, and still lives, in London.
Peter Daw
Appointed: January 2022
Pete Daw is a specialist in urban and environmental policy and is currently Head of Climate Change with responsibility for London’s climate change mitigation and adaptation policy and programmes. Previously Pete worked for Siemens as Director of Urban Development and Environment at the Global Centre for Cities where he worked with cities globally to help them understand the role technology can play in tackling their challenges. He worked extensively on Siemens smart city approach in China, India, Italy and Saudi Arabia. He also headed the Siemens partnership with C40 cities where he has produced thought leadership pieces on topics ranging from connected and autonomous vehicles to climate financing. He also developed Johannesburg’s first ever greenhouse gas inventory as part of Siemens work with C40 cities. Previously Pete worked in London government for 12 years at the GLA and the London Development Agency on climate mitigation, energy, air quality and waste programmes.
Pete Sudbury
Appointed: January 2022
Councillor Dr Pete Sudbury is a Liberal Democrat/Green Alliance Member for Wallingford Division in Oxfordshire. He is cabinet Member for Climate Change and Environment.
Pete is retired NHS psychiatrist and Medical Director with qualifications in Natural Sciences (MA), Medicine (BM, BCh), Psychiatry (NRCPsych), Business (MBA). He also spent 2 years as Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (UK/EMEA) “Health Insider”.
Pete has been County Councillor since Dec 2019.
Sarah Powell
Appointed: January 2022
Sarah has worked for the Environment Agency and its predecessors for over thirty years. In that time she has fulfilled a number of roles relating to regulation and enforcement, environmental planning, policy and customer engagement. Based in Reading, she has worked at local, regional and national level interacting with businesses, NGOs and other stakeholder groups. She served as the Water Industry Planning Manager during PR14 and PR19, working with Thames Water and Southern Water in the development of their business plans.
She led the Environment Agency’s input to the recent WINEP taskforce alongside Defra and Ofwat. Until recently she led the Environment Agency’s approach to chalk streams, before taking up the role of Water Company Account Manager in October 2021. She takes a lead on matters relating to Thames Water, Southern Water and Anglian Water.
Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson DBE
Appointed: January 2022
Tanni is a Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords and has served on numerous boards including the BBC, Transport for London and the London Legacy Development Corporation. She has been an influential advocate for consumers across a variety of sectors. She is an Ambassador for UNICEF and Disability Rights UK and is one of Britain's greatest Paralympian athletes. She is currently Chair of Sport Wales.
Our mission
With the support of the CCG, our mission is to represent the needs and interests of current and future customers. They help to ensure we develop and deliver an affordable and sustainable business plan. They also encourage the company to consider the impacts on the environment and wider society in a customer context.
The CCG's key objectives are to be:
- Independent
- Customer-focused
- Transparent (to customers, stakeholders, Ofwat and the company)
- Able to offer a balanced view in the light of the external environment eg. customer needs, environmental challenges, regulation
Reports and minutes
2024
- CCG Report - August 2024.pdf | 55.3 KB
- Public minutes of CCG 14 June 2024.pdf | 206.3 KB
- Public minutes of CCG 17 May 2024.pdf | 174.1 KB
- Public minutes of CCG 26 April 2024.pdf | 137.7 KB
- Public minutes of CCG 22 March 2024.pdf | 203.1 KB
- Public minutes of CCG 23 February 2024.pdf | 183.4 KB
- Public minutes of CCG 26 January 2024.pdf | 177.6 KB
Previous reports
2023
- CCG Report - December 2023.pdf | 390.6 KB
- CCG Report - September 2023.pdf | 1.4 MB
- Public minutes of CCG 8 December 2023.pdf | 145.6 KB
- Public minutes of CCG 24 November 2023.pdf | 125.4 KB
- Public minutes of CCG 13 October 2023.pdf | 131.6 KB
- Public minutes of CCG 22 September 2023.pdf | 151.8 KB
- Public minutes of CCG 11 August 2023.pdf | 121.3 KB
- Public minutes of CCG 14 July 2023.pdf | 120.5 KB
- Public minutes of CCG 16 June 2023.pdf | 127.1 KB
- Public minutes of CCG 19 May 2023.pdf | 145.1 KB
2022
- CCG Report - June 2022.pdf | 429 KB
- CCG Letter 12 July 2022.pdf | 169.2 KB
- Public minutes of CCG 16 December 2022.pdf | 179.5 KB
- Public minutes of CCG 3 November 2022.pdf | 137.8 KB
- Public minutes of CCG 7 October 2022.pdf | 133.9 KB
- Public minutes of CCG 9 September 2022.pdf | 100.8 KB
- Public minutes of CCG 22 July 2022.pdf | 123.5 KB
- Public minutes of CCG 7 July 2022.pdf | 77.7 KB
- Public minutes of CCG 16 June 2022.pdf | 85 KB
- Public minutes of CCG 19 May 2022.pdf | 121.4 KB
2019
- CCG Chair blog January 2019.pdf | 4.8 KB
- Public minutes of main CCG 26 July 2019 and CCG Chair blog.pdf | 348 KB
- Public minutes of main CCG 14 June 2019 and CCG Chair blog.pdf | 213.6 KB
- Commentary on Thames Water's performance commitments 2019/20.pdf | 604.1 KB
- Annual return 2019.pdf | 274.1 KB
- CCG letter to Ofwat - August 2019.pdf | 170.9 KB
- CCG response to Ofwat consultation: Consulting on our methodology for the 2019 price review.pdf | 279 KB
- CCG response to Thames Water's Building a Better Future - March 2019.pdf | 728 KB
2018
Contact the Customer Challenge Group
If you would like to get in touch with the Customer Challenge Group, you can send an email.