Today MOSL has published its 2021-24 Business Plan for member approval. Its publication follows an extensive consultation exercise with the MOSL Board, Panel and with trading party members.
In total, we received 28 responses to the online consultation along with written responses from the Panel and the Retailer Wholesaler Group (RWG). A summary of the responses and how the feedback has been reflected in the final plan, in more detail, can be found here. For full transparency, we are also publishing the full anonymised responses.
We are encouraged by the broad support we received from members on the plan’s key improvement programmes and the overall level of MO charges, which have seen a reduction of 1.1 per cent through improved efficiency savings. We also welcome the constructive challenge provided in a number areas, for example, to ensure that the plan remains flexible in the current economic climate; that the improvement programmes don’t detract from the critical delivery of the bilaterals solution; and to bring forward a number activities in Data Insight to accelerate the benefits to the market and its customers.
In support of MOSL’s 2021-24 Business Plan, Emma Kelso, Senior Director at Ofwat said “We support MOSL’s three-year, fully digitised, business plan, which emphasises the need for the sector to continue its focus on the resolution of market frictions and delivery of benefits to business customers and the environment. We look forward to continuing to work closely with MOSL and the sector to realise our vision of a business retail market that creates value for society.”
As a result of the consultation feedback, as well as our ongoing business planning activity, we have reached a number of key conclusions that have been reflected in the updated plan we are presenting to members for voting.
Key changes to the 2021-24 Business Plan can be summarised as follows (full response here):
We have set out our new gated investment appraisal and tracking process which will be introduced in 2021/22. This will drive value for money, track benefits and enable flexibility within the plan, all of which were called out as key within our consultation responses. All work under our improvement programmes will pass through this new process, as well as key cross-business projects within core service delivery. More information on the gated investment process can be found in 'Our approach to business planning'.
In response to the consultation feedback, we have brought forward some of the activity in our Data Insight improvement programme, recognising both its criticality to the market and the interdependencies with other improvement programmes. To enable this, we have moved £100k of spend from 2023/24 to 2021/22 to support the acceleration of work. This spend in 2021/22 will be funded through our reserves, driven by the additional surplus now expected in 2020/21, rather than additional MO charges.
Members will have the opportunity to attend a General Meeting at 3pm on Thursday 25 February 2021 to vote on whether or not to approve the proposed 2021/22 budget. Formal notice of the meeting has been sent to members, a copy of which can be found here.
We would like to thank all our members and stakeholders for their comprehensive responses and would encourage them to continue to engage with us through the voting process. We will communicate the final decision on the plan following the General Meeting on 25 February.
Notes to Editors:
Members are asked to approve the 2021/22 budget. Years two and three of the plan are indicative and not subject to member approval at the General Meeting on 25 February
A version of the draft business plan for consultation is stored online here.
