50% Increase in Thames Water Bill

galed001

I have just had mail from Thames Water stating my Water Bill will increase from £33 per month to £49 per month from April 2025. I have written the following complaint to Thames Water : 

I am writing to formally express my outrage and deep dissatisfaction regarding the staggering 50%
increase in my Thames Water bill, as outlined in your recent communication. This increase is wholly unreasonable, excessive, and completely unjustifiable, especially considering the financial strain already placed on households due to the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.

A £16 per month increase for “typical” metered customers is an astonishing leap, and it is utterly disgraceful that such a substantial rise is being introduced in a single year rather than phased in over multiple years. The justification provided in your communication is inadequate, and it appears evident that the real reason behind this extortionate rise is to cover the financial mismanagement and crippling debt that Thames Water has accrued over the years.

It is well-documented that Thames Water has failed to properly manage its infrastructure and finances, and yet, instead of holding those responsible accountable, you are placing the burden of this incompetence on your customers. This is completely unacceptable.

If your claims about improving the network, reducing leaks, and upgrading sewage treatment were truly priorities, these investments should have been made progressively over time, rather than requiring such an extreme and sudden price hike. Additionally, many customers, including myself, have seen little evidence of the improvements you promise, while reports of leaks, pollution incidents, and operational failures continue to surface.

I demand a clear, transparent breakdown of exactly why such a sharp increase is necessary and how the additional funds will be managed. Furthermore, I urge you to reconsider this decision and introduce a more measured and fair approach to any required price adjustments.

As a customer, I expect fair treatment, value for money, and accountability. If this price increase goes ahead without a justified and well-communicated explanation, I will escalate my complaint to Ofwat and the Consumer Council for Water. It is unacceptable that your customers should have to pay the price for your failures, and I will not accept this increase without a proper justification and reassessment.

 Any comments are welcome for people with similar experiences!!

(Removed by Forum Team)

tizerbelle

You do realise that Ofwat approved the price increases?

MattMattMattUK

galed001 said:

I have just had mail from Thames Water stating my Water Bill will increase from £33 per month to £49 per month from April 2025. I have written the following complaint to Thames Water : 

I am writing to formally express my outrage and deep dissatisfaction regarding the staggering 50%
increase in my Thames Water bill, as outlined in your recent communication. This increase is wholly unreasonable, excessive, and completely unjustifiable, especially considering the financial strain already placed on households due to the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.

If you look at the need for funding the costs are entirely reasonable and justified, you might not like it, I might not like it, but that does not change the reality of the situation. The "cost if living crisis" is a meaningless slogan. 

galed001 said:

A £16 per month increase for “typical” metered customers is an astonishing leap, and it is utterly disgraceful that such a substantial rise is being introduced in a single year rather than phased in over multiple years. The justification provided in your communication is inadequate, and it appears evident that the real reason behind this extortionate rise is to cover the financial mismanagement and crippling debt that Thames Water has accrued over the years.

It is well-documented that Thames Water has failed to properly manage its infrastructure and finances, and yet, instead of holding those responsible accountable, you are placing the burden of this incompetence on your customers. This is completely unacceptable.

It is not astonishing if you look at the situation. This is also being phased in over multiple years, this is the first of five above inflation rises that will take place over the next five years. There has been financial mismanagement from Thames Water, but there has also been chronic underinvestment under the auspices of keeping bills down, that has now come home to roost as we risk failure of supply if we do not start investing now.

galed001 said:

If your claims about improving the network, reducing leaks, and upgrading sewage treatment were truly priorities, these investments should have been made progressively over time, rather than requiring such an extreme and sudden price hike. Additionally, many customers, including myself, have seen little evidence of the improvements you promise, while reports of leaks, pollution incidents, and operational failures continue to surface.

They have been made over time and are continuing to be made over time, however they need to be accelerated due to previous underinvestment. The improvements are unlikely to be visual, the water currently flows through taps and will continue to flow through taps. Leak reduction, new reservoirs, improved processing are about security of supply and reducing sewerage discharge, not changes that the customer sees directly. 

galed001 said:

I demand a clear, transparent breakdown of exactly why such a sharp increase is necessary and how the additional funds will be managed. Furthermore, I urge you to reconsider this decision and introduce a more measured and fair approach to any required price adjustments.

They will ignore your demands and threats, as well as you desire for them to cut your bills. The reasoning is fully published in the Ofwat consultation and supporting documentation. They will not consider the increase.

galed001 said:

As a customer, I expect fair treatment, value for money, and accountability. If this price increase goes ahead without a justified and well-communicated explanation, I will escalate my complaint to Ofwat and the Consumer Council for Water. It is unacceptable that your customers should have to pay the price for your failures, and I will not accept this increase without a proper justification and reassessment.

You can scream at Ofwat if you want, but they are one that set and approved the increase so it would be entirely pointless. You have two choices, accept the increase or be taken to court for not paying your water bills, it really is that simple.

galed001 said:

Any comments are welcome for people with similar experiences!!

Everyone's experiences are similar, but that is totally irrelevant anyway. There was a public consultation taking in the reality of the situation, a plan has been put in place for five years of above inflation price rises to improve the network and that was created by Ofwat, who also set the pre-inflation price rises for the next five years as part of that process, as well as reducing the allowable profit and placing restrictions on executive remuneration over the same period.

Jemmy55

I live alone and have a water meter. As a low user my bills are relatively light, buy my increase for 2025 is 66%. I only wish that my pension increase was going to be as generous.

BentArm

I just wanted to say that I find it pretty distasteful that someone posts here with legitimate concerns over an incredibly high % increase to their water bill, looking to understand other people's positions and if they have experienced similar issues and the first two responses are essentially saying:

"Keep quiet and suck it up"

I'm unsure whether MattMattUK is some representative of Thames Water but your comments such as:

The "cost if living crisis" is a meaningless slogan. 

You have two choices, accept the increase or be taken to court for not paying your water bills, it really is that simple.

- Is this really the attitude we are all supposed to have in this country now? Well yes there has been mismanagement for years and we, as the English taxpayer and citizen once again have to shoulder the expense that this has caused.

When will these companies take responsibility to fix issues they have created themselves? 

And when will people in this country return to having a back-bone and making a stand when things are clearly wrong. 

MattMattMattUK

BentArm said:

I just wanted to say that I find it pretty distasteful that someone posts here with legitimate concerns over an incredibly high % increase to their water bill, looking to understand other people's positions and if they have experienced similar issues and the first two responses are essentially saying:

"Keep quiet and suck it up"

What people are actually saying is "Stop shouting at clouds and read the published information which explains why the costs are increasing".

BentArm said:

I'm unsure whether MattMattUK is some representative of Thames Water but your comments such as:

The usual refuge of people who cannot make a rational argument, accuse the other person of being an employee of the business in question. For clarity, no I do not work for Thames Water in any capacity, do I do not hold any shares in them (although my pension fund might) and personally I would rather they went bust and were nationalised, but my personal feelings towards them are irrelevant. 

BentArm said:

The "cost if living crisis" is a meaningless slogan. 

It is, it was a meaningless slogan created by the media. Over the last decade or so it has become fashionable to add crisis or emergency to statements, allowing people to wrap something up in emotion rather than dealing with the facts.

BentArm said:

You have two choices, accept the increase or be taken to court for not paying your water bills, it really is that simple.

That is the reality, Thames Water did not decide these rises, Ofwat did, backed by the government.

BentArm said:

- Is this really the attitude we are all supposed to have in this country now? Well yes there has been mismanagement for years and we, as the English taxpayer and citizen once again have to shoulder the expense that this has caused.

When will these companies take responsibility to fix issues they have created themselves? 

The reality is taxes were kept lower when the nation sold off the water industry, the revenue allowed the government to not raise adequate taxes. We have also spent the last twenty years chronically underinvesting in water infrastructure and would need to increase bills substantially regardless of if the supply was publicly or privately owned, bills have been too low for too long. With some of the water suppliers, Thames Water in particular, there are huge issues with the way that they have managed their finances and I believe that they deserve to go bust and have the supply nationalised (via a GovCo), but that has minimal impact on the need for increases in bills. 

As usual in this country we pay too little and expect too much. We have not invested enough in water, or energy, or transport, or healthcare, or education, or policing and justice for decades. The rot has set in and it will cost more to fix it because of that, it means increased bills and increased taxes, even if some people are going to have a tantrum about that.

JosieB91

I've had the same message from Thames Water. They're increasing my monthly bill by £16 a month. I currently pay £29 and i live alone. Its a 58% increase, i thought the increase was supposed to be 35% over 5years not 58% in one go? I understand Ofwat authorised the increases but i thought they had only authorised 35% not 58%?
am i missing something here?

EssexHebridean

For clarity, anyone posting here as an industry representative is required to state this in their signature. In fact these days there are incredibly few of those representatives here - it used to be that there were a fair number, and very useful they were too. 

MattMattMattUK

JosieB91 said:

I've had the same message from Thames Water. They're increasing my monthly bill by £16 a month. I currently pay £29 and i live alone. Its a 58% increase, i thought the increase was supposed to be 35% over 5years not 58% in one go? I understand Ofwat authorised the increases but i thought they had only authorised 35% not 58%?
am i missing something here?

The headline increase is for the average user on a metered supply, people on rateable or assessed charges will see above average rises, metered users will have different percentage rises based on their actual usage which varies depending on the split of standing charges and usage. The headline rises are also on top of inflation so the monetary figure will be higher than the percentage rate unless inflation drops to zero.

GibbsRule_No3.

I got my email from Thames Water this morning. Curious to know why, rather than a bog standard “we are raising your bill by an average of £16 a month” they could not tell me what I will actually be paying from April. I had a quick read of one of the pdfs and it looks like a 40.7% rise for water and waste, thus from my current £20 a month to £28.14 a month, so not £16 a month for me, others must be paying more to cover my non £16 a month rise.  I assume more headline news is generated by not telling us our actual house rise now?

galed001

tizerbelle said:

You do realise that Ofwat approved the price increases?

 I acknowledge that Ofwat has approved these increases, but this does not address my concerns as a paying customer.

While regulatory approval may allow for such price adjustments, it does not automatically justify them, particularly given the ongoing issues with Thames Water’s service levels, infrastructure maintenance, and customer satisfaction. Many households are already facing significant financial pressures, and an increase in water charges—especially without a noticeable improvement in service quality—is deeply concerning.