Households in England and Wales can today find out how much their water bill will go up by as they brace for an average £123 or 26 per cent annual rise from April.
The increase, confirmed by industry body Water UK, will take the average water and wastewater bill from £480 to £603 for the next year alone. This equates to a rise of around £10 a month, from £40 to £50 – but millions of people face even steeper rises.
Southern Water customers will be the worst-hit after being told they will see a 47 per cent increase, taking the average yearly bill with the company to £703.
Hafren Dyfrdwy and South West Water bills are rising by 32 per cent, while Thames Water customers will implement a 31 per cent hike. Yorkshire Water is raising bills by 29 per cent, and Bournemouth Water customers will see a 32 per cent increase.
Other factors, such as whether a customer is metered and how much water they use, means the bill changes will vary for customers depending on their circumstances.
The increases are higher than those announced by Ofwat in its new five-year price limits for firms just before Christmas as they include inflation.
The Consumer Council for Water (CCW) said stronger and fairer support was urgently needed to protect struggling households from the largest rise in water bills since the privatisation of the water industry 36 years ago.
Water UK said firms would invest around £20billion from April 2025 to March 2026, the highest ever level of expenditure in a single year, and the first in a five-year programme of investment worth £104billion up to 2030.
The investment would help to build nine new reservoirs and nine new water transfer schemes, upgrade the capacity of 1,700 wastewater treatment works to reduce pollution and improve and protect more than 15,000 kilometres of rivers across England and Wales.
Firms would also support more than three million households with their bills as part of a £4.1 billion package over the next five years.
Water UK advised customers should contact their water company directly to see what help was available if they were concerned.
It said that following the latest increases, water bills were now only around 5 per cent higher than they were in 2010 in real terms.
Water UK chief executive David Henderson said: ‘We understand increasing bills is never welcome and, while we urgently need investment in our water and sewage infrastructure, we know that for many this increase will be difficult.
‘Water companies will invest a record £20 billion in 2025-26 to support economic growth, build more homes, secure our water supplies and end sewage entering our rivers and seas.’
CCW said customers continued to face a postcode lottery of social tariff schemes, which meant the level of support and who was eligible varied considerably across England and Wales.
CCW chief executive Mike Keil said: ‘These rises are the largest we’ve seen since privatisation and will heap considerable pressure on millions of customers who are already having to make difficult choices.
‘Customers want to see investment in improving services and cleaning up our rivers but that can’t come at an unbearable cost to struggling households.
‘Around 2.5 million households are already in debt to their water company and there is a danger that number will grow unless some companies show more ambition around financial support.’
The increases come amid high levels of sewage spills and under-investment in pipes, sewers and reservoirs over the last decade.
Despite this, United Utilities and South West Water’s parent company Pennon have already said they will raise dividend payouts to shareholders this year so that they increase in line with inflation.
James Wallace, the chief executive of campaign group River Action, said: ‘We’re being told to celebrate the ‘record investment’ of water companies, but in reality, it is the public that will pay the price for their decades of neglect.
‘Instead of fixing crumbling infrastructure, water companies have saddled themselves with billions in junk debt, leaving us with sewage-choked rivers, and paying extortionate interest rates through bill hikes.
‘Communities and customers won’t be fooled by this web of lies. It’s time for broken utilities like Thames Water to be put into Special Administration and refinanced to operate for public benefit not investor return.
‘Meanwhile, the Water Commission must end the failed privatisation experiment and reform the broken regulators to ensure a sustainable and resilient water and sewage system for future generations. Rivers do not need economic growth, they enable it.’
And Matthew Topham, lead campaigner at We Own It, which calls for major reform of water companies said: ‘It’s utterly outrageous that after 35 years of bonus scandals and sewage spills, water firms are now being rewarded by Ofwat with huge inflation-busting bill hikes.
‘The management of South West Water and United Utilities, in their infinite wisdom, have taken this as a signal to increase dividends to shareholders. It’s little more than government-sanctioned daylight robbery.’
Critics say firms have chronically underinvested in their infrastructure since they were privatised in 1989, while paying out huge shareholder dividends.
In the 30 years since water firms moved into private hands, not a single major reservoir has been built in England and Wales.
The various water firms providing supplies to customers across England and Wales
Protesters hold ‘Boycott Thames Water’ placards at the Royal Courts of Justice last month
Labour has launched an independent commission which is reviewing how regulator Ofwat works.
Environment Secretary Steve Reed previously said the last Conservative government ‘irresponsibly let water companies divert customers’ money to line the pockets of their bosses and shareholders’.
He added: ‘The public are right to be angry after they have been left to pay the price of Conservative failure.
‘This Labour Government will ringfence money earmarked for investment so it can never be diverted for bonuses and shareholder payouts. We will clean up our rivers, lakes and seas for good.’
Liberal Democrat environment spokesman Tim Farron said last month that the industry was ‘a national scandal’.
He accused companies of ‘failing to invest in fixing leaky infrastructure, whilst company executives are stuffing their pockets with bonuses’.