Water bills are set to rise by £120 from April – more than six times the amount that was originally suggested by Ofwat last July.
What happened?
Back in July, the regulator Ofwat was demanding that any bill rise should be restricted to £19 per year – £95 over five years – and the water companies were complaining because they wanted £144 over that period, otherwise they would not be able to address problems like sewage leaks.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
Then in October, Ofwat announced that the worst-performing water companies would have to return £158 million to customers, after they missed important targets on pollution and leaks.
This meant customers were to receive an average rebate of less than £10 – around one-tenth of the increase the regulator was recommending for water firms over the next five years.
At the same time, though, This Site reported that an incentive scheme meant only four of the privatised water companies would be allowed to put up their bills.
And then, in December, we were told that bills would rise by £86 from April 2025 alone (although the average rise over five years will be £31 – making a total rise of £155).
Regulator Ofwat outlined expected bill rises in December, for the next five years, but as is standard practice, did not include inflation
says the BBC.
Did you ever get the feeling that your household finances were suffering the death of a thousand cons?
And, the BBC gleefully tells us, millions of households will see even steeper rises because of local variations!
Southern Water customers told they will see a 47% increase to £703 a year while Hafren Dyfrdwy and South West Water bills are rising by 32%.
Thames Water customers have been warned they will see a 31% hike and Yorkshire Water is raising bills by 29%.
Bournemouth Water customers will also see a 32% increase to their bills.
Other 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.
We were told, in December, that the bills for the next five years were being front-loaded, with £104 billion due to go towards upgrading water systems – but we’ve heard all that before, and the money went into shareholders’ and executives’ pockets instead.
The BBC quotes Water UK chief executive David Henderson, who said: “We accept we have not been investing enough [in infrastructure], but we don’t determine how much we invest – that is set by the regulator every five years.”
There is a tiny shred of comfort, in that water companies have said they will also set aside more than £4bn to fund social tariffs – discounted bills for vulnerable people – over the next five years. But the Consumer Council for Water (CCW), which represents billpayers, said support did not go far enough as about 2.5 million households were already in debt to their water company.
The CCW offers online advice to customers who are struggling to pay their water bill, and you can find it here.
But you shouldn’t need to.
When water was originally privatised, 36 years ago, Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government told us it would mean a more efficient, modernised and cheaper water and sewage system for everyone.
And this year we’re being subjected to the biggest price rise in the history of water supply in the United Kingdom.
It seems clear that the Tory politicians of the 1980s were lying through their teeth, and the main aim of privatisation was the enrichment of a few super-rich shareholders at the expense of everybody else. How do you feel about that?
It’s all just more evidence that privatisation should never have happened; water and sewage should be returned to public control and a new way found to make the improvements that we all need, to make the system safer, reduce sewage discharges into our rivers and waterways (which are still happening, remember), and cut bills instead of pushing them through the roof.
But that will never happen as long as Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves and all those other friends of the super-rich are leading our Labour-In-Name-Only government.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
Water bills are set to rise by £120 from April
Water bills are set to rise by £120 from April – more than six times the amount that was originally suggested by Ofwat last July.
What happened?
Back in July, the regulator Ofwat was demanding that any bill rise should be restricted to £19 per year – £95 over five years – and the water companies were complaining because they wanted £144 over that period, otherwise they would not be able to address problems like sewage leaks.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
Then in October, Ofwat announced that the worst-performing water companies would have to return £158 million to customers, after they missed important targets on pollution and leaks.
This meant customers were to receive an average rebate of less than £10 – around one-tenth of the increase the regulator was recommending for water firms over the next five years.
At the same time, though, This Site reported that an incentive scheme meant only four of the privatised water companies would be allowed to put up their bills.
And then, in December, we were told that bills would rise by £86 from April 2025 alone (although the average rise over five years will be £31 – making a total rise of £155).
says the BBC.
Did you ever get the feeling that your household finances were suffering the death of a thousand cons?
And, the BBC gleefully tells us, millions of households will see even steeper rises because of local variations!
We were told, in December, that the bills for the next five years were being front-loaded, with £104 billion due to go towards upgrading water systems – but we’ve heard all that before, and the money went into shareholders’ and executives’ pockets instead.
The BBC quotes Water UK chief executive David Henderson, who said: “We accept we have not been investing enough [in infrastructure], but we don’t determine how much we invest – that is set by the regulator every five years.”
There is a tiny shred of comfort, in that water companies have said they will also set aside more than £4bn to fund social tariffs – discounted bills for vulnerable people – over the next five years. But the Consumer Council for Water (CCW), which represents billpayers, said support did not go far enough as about 2.5 million households were already in debt to their water company.
The CCW offers online advice to customers who are struggling to pay their water bill, and you can find it here.
But you shouldn’t need to.
When water was originally privatised, 36 years ago, Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government told us it would mean a more efficient, modernised and cheaper water and sewage system for everyone.
And this year we’re being subjected to the biggest price rise in the history of water supply in the United Kingdom.
It seems clear that the Tory politicians of the 1980s were lying through their teeth, and the main aim of privatisation was the enrichment of a few super-rich shareholders at the expense of everybody else. How do you feel about that?
It’s all just more evidence that privatisation should never have happened; water and sewage should be returned to public control and a new way found to make the improvements that we all need, to make the system safer, reduce sewage discharges into our rivers and waterways (which are still happening, remember), and cut bills instead of pushing them through the roof.
But that will never happen as long as Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves and all those other friends of the super-rich are leading our Labour-In-Name-Only government.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
you might also like
How much can YOU pay? A&E charges would speed NHS privatisation
Osborne wants a ‘year of hard truths’. Here’s one: He’s HIDING the truth
Was Stephanie Bottrill a victim of corporate manslaughter?