water bill

[misty64]

Is anyone on here with southern water i am sure i have just seen that they are putting my water bill up by 47% from April, surely this can not be right and i have misunderstood, i knew they were going up but that is insane

www.ft.com/content/c3cdfefb-c912-4699-bb7f-72c5c6515757

Article above in the Financial Times explains the background.

What's worse is this isn't all of it. They have to increases planned for the next five years apparently. To hit a target increase by 2030

This.

It's going to go up in huge chunks, every year.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqx93en0p0qo

Yep, see here for a bit of the thoughts on future rises - including rises in dividend payments over that term.

It's actually bloody criminal. Racketeering with water.

I'm already paying nearly £60 a month (and on a meter) so I'm absolutely dreading this. And there's just 2 adults here, not having baths every night or running a laundry service or anything 🤷🏻‍♀️

Yes, apparently Thames Water is due to go bust. It's a financial scandal of corporate irresponsibility on the scale of that which caused the 2008 financial crisis.

Ours is going from £47 to £61! Luckily we don't have a meter it's a fixed price as we use alot of water as there's 6 of us but that's still a big jump

Just had ours through for 2025 and it’s gone up from £43 to £57 a month, over 30% increase!

They’re suggesting we go in a meter but it looks like it’d be almost double that for household usage, so no thanks!

I’m southern water and this is madness
We already pay £65/month for just two of us ( it’s their standard rate ) as they won’t put a water meter in for us.

Question to Mumsnetters here

How much is your metered monthly ( or yearly ) water bill and for how many people?

@£65/month we are paying £780/year unmetered

Standard advice from Martin Lewis: If there are more bedrooms in your home than people, a water meter will probably save you money. Our charges almost halved when we first had one installed and swopped our power showers for electric ones.

We're with Southern Water; as there are no obvious advantages to paying by DD, unlike gas and electricity tariffs, we pay when the bill comes in twice a year.

However, they've excelled themselves this year by sending a "if you've already paid" email reminder on Monday when we hadn't received the bill. The bill came this morning, dated 6th February and due for payment by 20th. Lord only know when they actually posted it.

We are with South West Water (most expensive water company in the country) and are bang on the average usage for a 2 person household of 100 cubic metres per year and we are using £48.50 a month's worth, but this will rise to £70 a month from April 2025.

Average usage is quite lean too, we have short showers, we don't water the garden or wash a car or ever have baths and only do 2 full loads of washing a week.

I probably wouldn't switch to a meter in your position. Remember if you get a leak you get hit with a huge bill which they may or may not let you off under a limited number of leak allowances, water meters aren't worth the stress in my opinion. If I could go on rates I'd probably pay at least £10 a month extra to not have the stress.

That’s really useful Thanks for that.
Our water usage is like yours, we are very careful too so good to know your comparable costs

I'm with Southern and my water bill has actually gone down from £90 to £55 a month. I put that down to my eldest two deciding to go and live with their dad. They would both quite happily spend 30 minutes in the shower every day.

Southern Water here, ours has gone up to £88 a month. Ridiculous!

Mine is already £60 a month. Water meter. 2 people. Small house. 1 bedroom.

Cant wait for the 19% increase

It will be £71 a month 😱

It’s going up from this April and then again before long.🤷‍♀️

Iv just changed my standing order.
To £16 more a month!
Madness

This is not a gloat post but I realise I am so, so, so very lucky... and really feel for those of you who are in an awful position.

I live in an old detached Edwardian house that was converted into two flats in the 1950s. I asked Wessex Water to fit me a meter a few years ago. Their surveyor came out, took one look and said they couldn't fit one because of the way the property had been separated, But, they would put me on an 'assessed charge' rather than continue to bill me on the old rateable value.

I immediately saved an awful lot in monthly payments - and can use as much water as I like without incurring any more costs. My DD has just gone up from just over £16 per month to just over £20 per month regardless of how much I use. Mind you, I still have the sewerage bill to come in but that will also be manageable as well because I won't be worrying about having an extra bath here or there...

Moral of the tale - if you're in an old converted property and are still on rateable value, it's worth getting the water company out to see if they can actually fit a meter. If they can't, insist they put you on an assessed charge...

For a household of 4, we pay £103.00 per month! That's with a meter outside our home. It's crippling us to think it's going be even more now!

I had an email telling me mine is going up from £60 a month to £105. We're a family of 3 and my account is in credit so no way should it be going up that much. I need to call them cos there must be a mistake

We are on a water meter, 2 adults, Ds 17 and DD when home from Uni. We pay £83 p/m, up from £73.

All water bills are going up though throughout all companies.