The average household water and sewerage bill in England and Wales for 2018-19 will be £405 – a below inflation rise of £9 (2%) compared with the provisional figure for the previous year.

Next year’s below inflation change to average bills is in the context of an overall cut in bills of 5% in real terms between 2015-2020. The consumer body, the Consumer Council for Water, said the increase is due largely to inflation which is at a six-year high.

Water companies in England and Wales will invest more than £8 billion in 2018-19. The investment comes in the fourth year of a £44 billion spending commitment from 2015 to 2020.

Water companies are also on track to deliver on a 5-year commitment to deliver financial support to an additional 1 million people (459,000 households) by 2020, with all companies having social tariffs in place to provide reduced water bills for customers who struggle to pay.

If they reach the target by 2020 the industry will be helping around 1.8 million people in total to pay their bill. At the beginning of 2017, the industry reported to CCWater that they had already delivered financial support to an extra 780,000 people (338,764 households) in less than two years, and that they fully expected to meet the total additional 1 million target.

Michael Roberts, Chief Executive of Water UK, the body which represents all the UK water companies commented:

“We know that households are under financial pressure in a number of ways. Even though the cost of water and sewerage is much less than other services, it all adds up, which is why water companies are doing everything they can to keep bills as low as possible while keeping up huge levels of investment.”

More than 3 million households in England and Wales find their water bills unaffordable, according to research by CCWater. The watchdog has been spearheading efforts to raise awareness of water companies’ social tariff schemes that can reduce the bills of eligible low-income customers by as much as 90 per cent, in some cases.

Take-up of these tariffs has risen by about 30 per cent since April 2017 but tens of thousands of households are still missing out on these and other schemes that companies now offer.

Tony Smith, Chief Executive of CCWater said:

“Most water companies are reducing their charges before inflation is added to bills which has softened the blow, but this will still be an unwelcome increase for millions of customers that are facing other rising costs.”