External customer challenge groups provide an important source of independent insight and constructive challenge, offering perspectives that are not available within the business alone. Building on the positive experience of its challenge group in early RIIO‑2, Cadent has established a renewed Customer Challenge Group to support the company through the RIIO‑3 price control.
The Customer Challenge Group (CCG) is a panel of independent experts that will provide informed, evidence‑based challenge to Cadent’s strategic thinking, plans and decision‑making across areas aligned to RIIO‑3 priorities. The Group will help ensure Cadent remains focused on delivering outcomes that protect customers’ interests, support the energy transition and meet regulatory expectations.
Cadent intends the CCG to both test assumptions and bring external expertise, experience and alternative perspectives into the organisation. The Group’s initial areas of focus include:
To enable effective challenge, Cadent will ensure the Group is appropriately informed through timely insight, open dialogue and the sharing of information between Cadent and Group members. This will include briefings on energy policy, future energy scenarios and emerging issues, alongside collaborative discussions on how customer insight and trust can best be built and maintained.
In the context of the UK Government’s net zero ambition, Cadent faces significant strategic and delivery challenges. These include the future role of natural gas, the potential repurposing of networks, and the development of low‑carbon alternatives such as hydrogen. The CCG will play a key role in challenging how Cadent responds to this changing external landscape while continuing to protect customers’ interests.
While Customer Challenge Groups are mandated by Ofgem for RIIO‑3, Cadent’s CCG has a broader dual purpose:
Through its membership, the CCG will bring the “outside‑in” to decision‑making, drawing on skills, knowledge and experience from across the consumer, energy and regulatory landscape. The Group will act as a sounding board for senior leaders, support learning from other sectors, and identify emerging good practice, risks and opportunities.
Where appropriate, the CCG may also help facilitate strategic engagement with external partners and stakeholders, enhancing Cadent’s policy development and transparency. Drawing on its collective understanding of the energy market, regulation and consumer needs, the Group will support Cadent in shaping plans that are ambitious, credible and aligned to customer outcomes.
