Preparing for bill increases

Every five years the water industry regulator, Ofwat, sets the amount that can be collected from customers through bills and the annual price change is linked to inflation*. Ofwat uses the November rate for inflation to set prices for the following year. Find out more about how charges are set and our current charges.

*The water industry uses the Consumer Price Index including Housing Costs (CPIH) as the measure for inflation.

The amount that your bill increases by depends on whether you receive only water, only wastewater or both services from us. If you are unsure check who supplies you.

Bill increases will also vary depending on whether you have a water meter or not, your consumption and the time of year that you receive your bill (relative to when charges change on 1 April).

For example:

• A two-person household receiving both water and sewerage services that is on a water meter may see a bill increase of around £5 a month.
• A typical household receiving both water and sewerage services that is not on a water meter may see a bill increase of around £8 per month.

If you would like to be on a meter but it is not possible you may be on or eligible for our Assessed charges.

For example:

• A two-person household receiving both water and sewerage services on Assessed charges may see a bill increase of around £4 a month.

We published our final charges on 1 February 2024, which apply to bills from 1 April 2024.

The regions that water companies serve vary substantially according to their environment, availability of water and whether people live in cities, towns or the countryside. This means that costs – and therefore bills – will vary from company to company. Over time, customers’ priorities also vary across the country, which will affect companies’ future plans and the revenue they need to deliver these plans.

We recognise that our bills are higher than the industry average, particularly for providing water. This is due to the largely rural area we serve – we have more pipes per customer to maintain than other water companies, and the cost of moving water across our region is relatively high. This means that the average bill per household needs to be higher than other companies to maintain our services.

The amount that we can collect from customers through bills is ultimately set by Ofwat, the industry regulator. In determining how much companies need to collect from customers, Ofwat takes into account companies’ plans and their different circumstances. Ofwat has approved our bills for the forthcoming year, from April 2024, and is currently in the process of setting allowances for the next five-year period (2025-2030).

Find out more about how our charges are set.

The average bill increases are based on a customer who receives both water and sewerage services from us. Some bills will increase less than this and some bills will increase more.

Bill increases are not spread evenly because we set charges to recover the amount it costs us to provide services over the long run, and this can change over time.

If you are on a meter and you are using more water than you did in the past your bill will increase, and this is in addition to the bill increases above, as you pay for what you use. Find out how to save water.

On average, unmetered customers in our area use more water per year than metered customers and therefore on average unmetered bills are higher than metered bills.

In addition, we have seen the average water use of unmetered customers increase over time. This is because we have seen low-usage unmetered customers switch to a meter, which means the average consumption of unmetered customers has gone up. Therefore, unmetered bills have increased by more than metered bills to reflect the cost of the services provided.

We understand for some households an increase in your water bill could be hard to afford. If you are struggling, please don’t worry, we can help you with your bill.

You might also find you could make savings on your bill by having a meter fitted.

We can all save energy and money by using less hot water – find out how much you could save by using less water.

Our main costs are power, chemicals, materials and staffing. Several of these costs have risen by more than inflation. Wessex Water does not qualify for the government’s business support for energy bills.

We recognise with household costs rising, the timing of water bill increases is not ideal.

Where we fail to meet our commitments to the services we offer, we return money to customers through lower bills. Similarly, where we’ve exceeded these commitments, we are rewarded by collecting money through bills.

Our performance in 2021-22 was industry leading and as a result we were due to be rewarded. Typically, this reward would be collected in 2023-24. To help customers during the immediate cost-of-living crisis, we agreed with Ofwat to collect the reward in 2024-25 instead, meaning bills went up by less than would otherwise have been the case in 2023-24. Learn more about how our charges are set.

We invest substantially more money than we receive through customer bills. This goes towards maintaining and improving the services we provide, such as renewing ageing water mains and upgrading water recycling centres to meet strict environmental standards. And we are currently spending more than £3 million a month reducing how often storm overflows operate. The amount we invest is approved and tightly controlled by our regulators. Last year we invested four times as much money as our profit.

You can find more information about how to understand your bill and how it's calculated along with how our charges are set.

We don't yet know with certainty what might happen to bills from 2025 to 2030. Ofwat will set the amount that can be collected from customers as part of its price review, which does not conclude until the end of 2024.

However, we have now submitted our 2025-2030 business plan to Ofwat which sets out what we are proposing for this period. Our plan proposes more than doubling our investment, to deliver important environmental and service improvements (most of which is required by regulators). If approved, this means that bills will need to increase over this period, although by 2030 they will remain lower (before inflation), than they were 15 years ago.

Moreover, because we know this will be incredibly challenging, we will increase the number of households who receive support from our Tailored Assistance Programme to 140,000.