Thames Water has more than doubled my bill, why?

Aussie2005

I live in sheltered  housing and paid my water bill to Hammersmith and Fulham Council at a cost of ££178.36 A YEAR to 2021 when Thames took over and billed me an estimated charge of £409.89 for 2021-22, I expected this would be adjusted at the end of they year as it was 'estimated'.  Not so, the charge of £409.89 remained the same for 22-23 and was demanded full payment.  I have since spent a lot of time contacting Thames Water to be stone walled and eventually received a reply which offered no explanation. According to Thames Water and Hammersmith and Fulham Council my bill should only have increased by 5%.   Here's a cut and paste from H&F council explaining the hand over to Thames:  Q. You may receive an estimate from Thames Water and it may be higher than you used to pay for water as part of your rent.

A. Part of any difference between the charges you paid to the council last year and the bills from Thames Water for this year will be due to the annual increase in the water bills. From April 2021 this is expected to be about a 5% increase.  My increase is in excess of 100%  

Further cut and paste from H&F council: Discounts the council would apply included capping the additional annual charge to tenants known to be under-occupying where the final charge from Thames Water was higher than the sum of the weekly charges for that year.

The council also waived any additional charge for tenants aged over 65 (aged over 60 if living in sheltered housing), arising from the difference between a higher final annual charge than the sum of the years weekly charges.

I am 75 yrs of age and under occupy as a single person living in my rental flat, yet Thames Water refuse to discuss these discounts and insist I pay this new charge and even hinted that they would cause me to have 'bad credit' if I didn't pay up on time.

I find this very frustrating that a company can simply double your bill, refuse to explain why and completely ignore the stated discounts, I feel we are heading into a time where companies will now charge whatever please them with no recourse.

Is there anything I can do to at least obtain the discounts and have Thames Water abide by no more than a 5% increase?

TheMilkmansDad

Are you on a meter? If so, the 5% is the unit rates not the bill total. If more has been consumed you'll be paying more than 5%.

pochase

What is the rateable/chargeable value of your flat? It can be found on page 2 of your bill.

The fixed cost for the water bill will be already almost £100, this is for metered and unmetered properties.

In most cases it will be cheaper to have a water meter.

macman

As a single person, it's a near certainty that a metered bill will save you a lot of money.
If it's a flat and they can't fit a meter, then you can request assessed billing, which again will be much less than RV billing.
It's not clear what you are currently on, but this is a no-brainer.