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Water Bill Has Risen By £20 in The AnswerBank: Property
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Water Bill Has Risen By £20

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Quenched | 00:17 Wed 09th Apr 2025 | Property
59 Answers

Ok I live in Cornwall and my water supplier is South West Water, but this month they have increased my monthly payments by £20.

 

I have mention that 10 years ago I inquired about installing a water meter to save money as everyone was raving that having a water meter saves money. 

 

But after the engineer came out he said a water meter couldn't be installed on my property as I share my water with my next door neighbour, and they call it a party line. 

 

So South West Water agreed to put us on a special monthly payment of £42 a month based on house size and occupancy.

 

But this month they just took £62.58.

 

My question is should I contest this as such a large increase seems unfair when a water meter or anyway of regulation is impossible. 

 

We don't even have a bath or garden, so water consumption is incredibly small, and doesn't warrant paying over 60 pounds a month for. 

 

What should I do? 

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https://www.southwestwater.co.uk/household/help-support/faqs/customer-services#why-are-bills-so-high
01:33 Fri 11th Apr 2025

//Surely different counties regions should be equal? //

Not at all - that's the iniquity of the whole set-up. You are stuck with a single supplier for your area, you can't move to another & they can charge what they like (subject to regulation). It's not a competitive market & should never have been privatised.

By way of comparison we have just had a water bill for £485 per year. 2 bed - Anglia Water. Water only as we're not on mains drains and have a tank.

we've opted for a meter now as it was c£320 last year. 

Hopefully we can achieve something between the two or less with the smart meter. 

Question Author

barry1010, 

Yes they deal with the sewage. 

Well having said that I don't know in terms of repair or collapsed pipes as we've never had an issue. 

So honestly I don't know, they have never had to come out or anything. 

 

I don't even know where our sewage ends up. Theres no treatment plant near where I live. 

Google will tell you that South West water has the highest combined charges...and that those charges are going up by 28%. I don't think you can escape them. Unless you've got a well you can use. 🤔

There appears to be quite a few sewage treatment locations...surely there's one near you.

https://www.southwest-environmental.co.uk/further%20info/in%20depth/sewage_works_maps/south_west_water_sewage_treatment_works_location_map.html

We seem to have a number of these sewage treatment locations near us and there have been problems with them for a number of years.  There are always lorries going through the area taking it to other places as ours can't cope with it.  Councils answer to the problem is to build even more houses, hundreds of them before this has been sorted.  Surely the infrastructure should have been put in place before granting permission for new builds when the one that is here can't cope as it is.

Where do you live, Shedman?

On the coast in East Devon.

Guess you're not going to be overly quenched Quenched

Question Author

theshedman, 

We got the same problem with houses going up all over the place, and no extra doctors or hospitals, schools being put as a priority first. 

You are not unique it's an issue UK wide 

^ and will get worse if the government's house building targets are met ( which unfortunately is highly unlikely).

Weneedthe extra housing gbut Wednesday the infrastructure too.

Wednesday = we need

Question Author

It was on our local news programme this evening, that scores of people emailed the show complaining about the recent water bill increases. 

 

Apparently the Labour government have stopped paying water companies a percentage to prop them up. 

 

But how then can they continue to make profits? 

SWW have been operating at a loss for the last 18 months. Some cos have made profits though

We told you 2 pages ago that the government stopped propping up the water companies 

There has also been major underinvestment. Hopefully there are conditions attached to the huge price increases they've been allowed to make over this and the next few years.

Our water bill has doubled. £1,000 a year now. Apparently road run off and gutter drains are the excuse. We are linked to next door. No meter possible. Rob dogs.

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