ISG Blog
1 July 2024
There is much to update you on as our work has progressed at full speed since the start of May and since we last produced a blog. Here are some highlights:
We finalised our annual report for 2023-24 which is now available on this website and gives an overview of our activities and thoughts on how well NGN has been delivering its commitments and is planning for the next price control period.
We look forward to discussing many of the issues we raised in our report with NGN’s wider stakeholders at the company’s annual stakeholder event in September. In the meantime any feedback on the report would be welcome- particularly if you think we have not properly addressed issues of importance to you.
At our May meeting we scrutinised how NGN is shaping its workforce resilience strategy including how it is developing its approach to Equality Diversity and Inclusion. We also reviewed NGN’s performance at the end of year 3 of GD2 and its regulated report on performance (RRP) to Ofgem for 2023-24. This showed that NGN is currently on track to meet its GD2 commitments and standards, with the exception of decarbonising its operational fleet.
We also undertook a review of our own effectiveness against the 4 criteria we use to judge whether we are delivering against our key responsibilities. We have placed our self-assessment report on the ISG website and we hope that this helps demonstrate where we have influenced NGN’s delivery and reflected the views important to stakeholders.
The first draft of the business plan was shared with us at the end of May and at our June meeting we heard from the relevant business leads for the main business plan outcome areas. There is now a strong focus for us on how NGN is building evidence to support the outputs it is proposing in its new business plan, how it is triangulating stakeholder insights and using these to shape its work programmes.
Whilst there is still significant work to be done – particularly in providing detailed costs and producing the supporting strategy documents, we were very pleased to receive early sight of the proposals which has allowed us to challenge and offer our views on how the plan could be strengthened in line with consumer needs and expectations.
The group has provided detailed feedback to the company on the first draft of its GD3 plans and the ISG Chair attended the Board designated steering group to share our thoughts at this stage and indicate where we think the plan can be strengthened – highlighting in particular the need to demonstrate more clearly value for money and a clearer strategic vision for GD3.
And most recently at our meeting on 1 July we reviewed how NGN is responding to the 20 challenges we have raised to date; how it is responding to our detailed comments on the business plan draft; how it is interpreting the results of its recent Customer Value Perceptions Survey and insights from the recent engagement event with its 17 contractor companies and their teams (around 850 gas engineers and support teams used to deliver the REPEX pipe replacement programme).
Ofgem’s Sector Specific Methodology Decision has been delayed due to the General Election but we hope this will be published very shortly to enable the original timescales for submission of the business plan to Ofgem by 11 December.
It should also provide further clarity on the role of the ISGs. We welcomed the proposed changes to the remit of the groups set out in Ofgem’s last business plan guidance update, and we are engaging with the regulator on how we are influencing NGN’s plan and gathering evidence to help Ofgem assess how the plan delivers in the best interests of customers and consumers.
In the coming month we are planning a number of ISG sub-group deep-dive sessions and at our next meeting we shall focus on costs and value for money.
Additionally we shall continue to attend and observe a number of stakeholder events including the Citizen’s Panel.