Water bills to increase by 5.7%

Regulator Ofwat announces price rises for 2012/13 - see how much your supplier is set to charge.

Water and sewerage bills in England and Wales will increase by an average of 5.7% this year, regulator Ofwat says.

Ofwat says the average bill will be £376 for 2012/13. The changes will come into effect on 1st April 2012 and last until 31st March 2013.

It claims that this is around 10% lower than suppliers wanted, before inflation is factored in. The new increase is 0.5% above the Retail Prices Index inflation figure of 5.2% from November last year.

Ofwat says that the average bill is on track to be in line with inflation by 2015.

Here’s how the individual companies’ average bills will look following the increase:

Company	Average combined increase in water and sewerage costs	Average cost of water and sewerage bill	% change in average cost of water and sewerage bill
Southern	£31	£416	8.2%
Thames	£21	£339	6.7%
Yorkshire	£21	£361	6.1%
Wessex	£26	£455	6%
Northumbrian Essex & Suffolk	£12 (water only)	£217 (water only)	5.9%
Anglian	£22	£423	5.4%
Northumbrian (excluding Essex & Suffolk)	£17	£352	5.1%
Severn Trent	£16	£325	5%
South West	£24	£543	4.7%
United Utilities	£18	£395	4.7%
Dwr Cymru	£16	£427	3.8%

The figures above do not include water-only companies, whose bills will increase by an average of 4.7%. Bristol is imposing the steepest average increase at 8.8%, while bills from Veolia Central will only rise by an average of 1.8%.

The amount your bill will increase by will depend on both your water company and whether or not you have a water meter installed.

Ofwat says water companies are investing £22 billion by 2015 to improve water treatment works and sewage treatment works, among other projects.

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