The Consumer Council for Water (CCW) is warning that water companies’ failure to deal with customers’ concerns over environmental performance and water meters has fuelled a steep rise in complaints.

The consumer watchdog has seen the number of complaints which had to be escalated to it by household customers in England and Wales rise by almost a third (29%) in 2023-24 – reaching its highest level for nearly a decade.

According to CCW, these disputes are the most frustrating and time-consuming for customers, who have already had to exhaust their water company’s two-stage complaints process.

CCW’s annual household customer complaint-handling report shows overall customers had to make a total of 222,956 complaints directly to water companies in England and Wales.

More than half (57%) of these related to issues with billing, including disputes around how much people were being charged, methods of payment and difficulties with the affordability of bills.

Within the 7,977 complaints received by CCW, issues relating to water meters rose by 30% including concerns over how often they were being read and whether they were working properly. There was also a significant rise in complaints to CCW about environmental issues, up by 217% over the last 12 months. These mainly related to spills from storm overflows and wider pollution of rivers and seas.

Dr Mike Keil, Chief Executive of CCW, said:

“Households are having to waste far too much time and energy resolving complaints, which water companies should be getting right first time. Trust in the water sector is already badly fractured and the poor handling of complaints will only compound people’s frustration.

“We’re particularly concerned to see a significant rise in complaints from customers with water meters who are questioning the accuracy of their bill. More companies are planning to roll out smart meters over the next few years, so they must listen and act on people’s concerns now or risk further damaging customer trust.”

Thames Water and Yorkshire Water are poorest performers

CCW compares the performance of water companies on the number of complaints they received per 10,000 household connections, as well as assessing how well these were handled.

Thames Water and Yorkshire Water were the only two water and wastewater companies to be rated as poor on both performance measures. Thames Water was the worst performer overall, with customers making more complaints directly to the company – as well as to CCW – than any other supplier. Yorkshire Water also performed poorly, with the number of complaints coming to CCW about the company rising by 90%.

Among the companies which just provide water services, Cambridge Water was the only supplier to be rated as poor on both measures. There was a 77% rise in the number of complaints about the company brought to CCW, with most of these disputes relating to bills from metered households.

CCW has applauded the service provided by Wessex Water and Portsmouth Water, the only two companies to receive top marks on both measures of performance.

In an interview with the Radio 4 Today programme this morning, interviewer Nick Robinson said Water UK, the body which represents all the UK water companies, had expressed the view that “water companies are being forced to make cuts to customer services because of restrictions on how much they can charge.

Commenting in reponse, Dr. Keil said:

“It is launghable some of the stuff Water UK are coming out with at the moment ….I do not buy into Water UK’s line on this.”