Water bills to rise by £123 a year on average from April ...Middle East

The average annual water bill for households in England and Wales will increase by £123, or 26%, from April 1 according to the latest figures.

The rise, an increase of around £10 a month, was confirmed by industry body Water UK.

While the average water and wastewater bill will rise from £480 to £603 for the next year, millions of households face even steeper rises.

That includes Southern Water customers, who will see a 47% increase taking their average bill to £703.

Others facing heftier increases includes Hafren Dyfrdwy and South West Water bills, which will go up by 32%, a rise for Thames Water customers of 31% and Yorkshire Water bills going up by 29%.

Bournemouth Water customers will also see a 32% increase to their bills.

On Wednesday Thames Water customers were told via email that their bills will increase from April by an average of £19 per month.

It added: “Remember, your bill change could be higher or lower based on the rateable value of your property.”

It was also revealed that the water company that polluted Lake Windermere with sewage has raised bills by 32 per cent.

South West Water, owned by Pennon, will also increase bills by 23 per cent to its 1.8 million customers across Devon, Cornwall and part of Dorset and Somerset.

Factors such as whether a customer is metered and how much water they use, means the bill changes will vary considerably 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.

They also come amid high levels of sewage spills and under-investment in pipes, sewers and reservoirs over the last decade.

Consumer Council for Water chief executive Mike Keil said the 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,” he said.

James Wallace, the chief executive of campaign group River Action, said the public was paying the price for “decades of neglect” by water companies.

“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,” he said.

Charles Watson, from River Action, added: “The shareholders in these companies are just laughing all the way to the bank.”

Water UK said firms would invest around £20bn 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 £104 billion 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 £4.1bn 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.

Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Water bills to rise by £123 a year on average from April )

Also on site :

• Meet Scottie Scheffler’s Wife, Meredith Scudder
• World Bank says Saudi Arabia and Qatar have paid off Syria’s outstanding debt
• Yet another docu-series about Deion Sanders is currently in the works