Just one water company across England and Wales will see customers' bills reduce over the next five years. The increase means households in England and Wales will see an average rise of around £31 per year from April. Consumer Council for Water chief executive Mike Keil said: “These bill rises may be less than what water companies wanted but they are still more than what many people can afford.
“We know at least two in five households will find these increases difficult to afford but the support being offered by some water companies lacks ambition.”Southern Water said in a statement on Thursday morning that the issue had been solved and customers will start to be reconnected later in the day. Is to be allowed to increase consumer bills by 35 per cent, as the regulator also handed it an £18.2m fine for paying “unjustified” dividends to shareholders. The ruling falls well short of the 59 per cent Thames Water had said it needed in the run-up to the decision, as Of the 16 water companies in England and Wales, only SES Water – which covers around 750,000 people in parts of Surrey, Kent and south London – will see customers’ bills decrease in the next five years. But it actually gave firms higher bill increases than they asked for in their original business plans submitted in early 2024. For example, Anglian Water had initially asked for average annual bills to rise to £573 by 2030, a 17 per cent increase. Ofwat reduced that to £557 in a draft ruling in July. Water firms then had a chance to put forward updated requests for bill increases. Anglian increased its request to £649 in annual bills. In Ofwat’s final decision, it allowed Anglian to charge customers £631 on average per year – well above the initial increase submitted by the company in the first half of 2024. Similar processes happened at Northumbrian Water, Severn Trent, South West Water, United Utilities and Yorkshire Water