The rollout of smart water meters to business customers in England is broadly on track operationally, but a significant communications gap is undermining the technology's potential, according to new research from the Consumer Council for Water (CCW). The independent watchdog warns that fewer than a third of the small and medium-sized businesses it interviewed had access to any consumption data following installation.
Water companies committed in 2024 to install around 800,000 smart meters for non-household customers over five years. The stakes are considerable: businesses account for around a third of all water put into public supply, meaning their ability to understand and manage consumption is a meaningful lever for long-term water resilience. Smart meters could play a central role in that effort — but only if businesses are equipped to use them.
Smart water meters have real potential to help businesses better understand and manage their water use, from improving billing accuracy to supporting leak awareness
The problem, CCW's research suggests, begins with expectations. Having experienced smart energy meters with near real-time dashboards and app-based tracking, businesses arrive at the smart water meter journey expecting something similar. The reality is that the digital infrastructure needed to deliver on that promise is still being built — not all retailers currently have portals or apps in place, with CCW noting that the smart meter read hub is not expected to enable data sharing between wholesalers and retailers until the latter part of 2026. What many businesses find instead is what the report describes as a "data void" — a meter installed, but no data and no clear explanation of when it will arrive. CCW's argument is that the water sector needs to communicate this transitional reality honestly and early, rather than leaving businesses to discover it after installation.
Compounding this is the fact that water is a fundamentally low-priority issue for most SMEs. It is treated as a background utility, its costs managed by direct debit and largely ignored until something goes wrong. Communications about the rollout are routinely skim-read or missed altogether, and basic questions — is this mandatory, is it free, how long will the water be off, when will I see data — frequently go unanswered. The result is passive acceptance at best, and postponed installations at worst.
CCW's research is clear that this disengagement cannot simply be waited out. It recommends that communications work harder to signal relevance in a low-attention environment, leading with concrete business benefits such as billing accuracy and cost savings rather than the technology itself. Peer experiences from other businesses, the report notes, carry more credibility than messages from water retailers. Critically, it also flags that installation alone does not shift engagement. Ongoing communications — usage summaries, automated alerts, quarterly trend reports — are needed to convert a passive meter recipient into someone who actively uses their consumption data.
The physical installation itself is not the problem. CCW found it to be generally smooth, quick and minimally disruptive. The difficulty lies in what comes after: most businesses receive little or no follow-up communication, leaving the full value of the investment untapped and trust in the sector no stronger than before.
For larger organisations, the challenges run deeper still. The research, which also included interviews with members of the Major Energy Users' Council, found that bigger businesses often have strained relationships with wholesalers who install meters without consultation or data sharing. Where SMEs want a simple portal, large businesses need raw data feeds and API access to integrate consumption information across hundreds of sites. The report calls for a more collaborative, project-managed approach for this segment, with dedicated points of contact and bulk site communications rather than individual letters sent to local managers.
CCW sets out four principles to guide improvement:
- Comprehensive preparation, giving businesses everything they need to know upfront
- Reducing cognitive effort through proactive, sequenced communication
- Emphasising business value over technical features
- Transparency about what "smart" actually means in the water context, including honest timelines for data access
"Smart water meters have real potential to help businesses better understand and manage their water use, from improving billing accuracy to supporting leak awareness," said Christina Blackwell, Head of Non-Household Policy at CCW. "But that potential will only be realised if communication is as smart as the technology itself."
With the rollout still in its early stages, CCW argues that addressing the communications gap now — before habits and expectations become entrenched — is essential to ensuring smart meters deliver on their promise for both business efficiency and wider water resilience.
