Water deregulation - good news for customers?

Deregulation is on the way in the water sector, with the market seemingly moving towards an electricity-style market where consumer are no longer bound by geographic considerations.

In the first instance, business customers are going to be given the freedom to choose their supplier, with the hope that this might be rolled out to households in due course. This has led to some of the water companies repositioning themselves in the market, and DEFRA is of the view that there could be savings of up to £200m.

It will be interesting to see what results: what will happen to prices, and how much switching will occur? Additionally, I'm interested in seeing what happens to the ownership of the water companies. Will some of the foreign investors that bought them, at a time when they had monopoly positions, look to move on with their statutory monopolies ended?