Households in England and Wales are set to see an average increase of £123 to their yearly water bill from April 1, final figures show, marking a 26 per cent rise.
The increase, confirmed by industry body Water UK, will take the average water and wastewater bill from £480 to £603 for the next year alone.
This equates to an increase of around £10 a month, from £40 to £50.
However millions of households face even steeper rises, with Southern Water customers told they will see a 47 per cent increase, Hafren Dyfrdwy and South West Water bills rising by 32 per cent, Thames Water customers warned they will see a 31 per cent hike and Yorkshire Water raising bills by 29 per cent.
Bournemouth Water customers will also see a 32 per cent increase to their bills.
The increase will see the average yearly Southern Water bill reach £703.
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.
Here’s what the rise could mean for your area:
The increases are higher than those announced by Ofwat in its new five-year price limits for firms just before Christmas as they include inflation.
The Consumer Council for Water (CCW) said stronger and fairer support was urgently needed to protect struggling households from the largest rise in water bills since the privatisation of the water industry 36 years ago.
Water UK said firms would invest around £20 billion from April 2025 to March 2026, the highest ever level of expenditure in a single year, and the first in a five-year programme of investment worth £104 billion up to 2030.
The investment would help to build nine new reservoirs and nine new water transfer schemes, upgrade the capacity of 1,700 wastewater treatment works to reduce pollution and improve and protect more than 15,000 kilometres of rivers across England and Wales.
Firms would also support more than three million households with their bills as part of a £4.1 billion package over the next five years.
Water UK advised customers should contact their water company directly to see what help was available if they were concerned.
It said that following the latest increases, water bills were now only around 5 per cent higher than they were in 2010 in real terms.
Water UK chief executive David Henderson said: “We understand increasing bills is never welcome and, while we urgently need investment in our water and sewage infrastructure, we know that for many this increase will be difficult.
“Water companies will invest a record £20 billion in 2025-26 to support economic growth, build more homes, secure our water supplies and end sewage entering our rivers and seas.”
The increases come amid high levels of sewage spills and under-investment in pipes, sewers and reservoirs over the last decade.
Despite this, United Utilities and South West Water’s parent company Pennon have already said they will raise dividend payouts to shareholders this year so that they increase in line with inflation.
James Wallace, the chief executive of campaign group River Action, said: “We’re being told to celebrate the ‘record investment’ of water companies, but in reality, it is the public that will pay the price for their decades of neglect.
“Instead of fixing crumbling infrastructure, water companies have saddled themselves with billions in junk debt, leaving us with sewage-choked rivers, and paying extortionate interest rates through bill hikes.”
