Water bills to rise again from April – here's what's happening where you live

MSE_Clare

The majority of households in England, Scotland and Wales will see water and sewerage charges rise from April. In England and Wales, further hikes are planned over the next three years. However, prices vary depending on where you live – here's what's happening in your area.

Read the full story:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2026/01/water-bills-april-rise/

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booneruk

Let me guess - out come the "Privatisation has failed" brigade without commenting on the fact prices have gone up in Scotland too (Nationalised).

EDIT - Privatisation isn't perfect, obviously! 😉

151Taddy

The one saving that everyone seems to miss is the "Surface Water Charge".

You only need to pay this if the water that drains from your roof via drainpipes goes into the sewage outflow.

I understnd that most UK properies with gardens tend to use a "Soak Away" rather than the sewer.
If your water is disposed of via a soak away, no need to pay for surface water drainage!

If you are being charged for surface water and think you use a soak away, contact the water company that supplies you and ask them to come and test your outflow - they don't charge for that - you could save around £85 per year.

When the Surface Water Charge was introduced in the 2000's the water companies just "Assumed" that everyone drained rainwater directly into the sewers - how convenient!

Gettingrippedoff

I’m with Anglian water unmetered. My bill has gone up 10.9%. £947 to 1056. Does this seem right? I thought they were going up 7%

TheElectricCow

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81908519#Comment_81908519

The prices wouldn't increase by a fixed percentage - For an unmetered supply it would be based on the fixed yearly charge plus an amount based on the Rateable Value of your home (a number set in 1990), so the increase would be somewhat specific to your property. Anglian Water set out their charges on this page: https://www.anglianwater.co.uk/services/extra-support/tariff-options/our-standard-charges

It's important to remember the values MSE have published in their article are only averages of the expected increase, and the water company won't be distributing those increased costs across every customer equally. Also note, you appear to already be paying about 50% above the average to start with (£630 vs your bill of £947 for the current year), so I wouldn't expect your bill to reflect the average.

Assuming you don't use massive amounts of water, there's a good chance you'd be able to save by switching to a metered supply. Naturally all households will vary and I'm a very low user of water compared to the average, but just as an example to illustrate the difference, the fixed charges alone for an unmetered supply (not including the extra property value element) are about 3x higher than my entire annual bill for a metered supply including all actual usage.

MattMattMattUK

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81859998#Comment_81859998

Essentially 50+ years of underinvestment has come home to roost. Our water was too cheap for decades, we now have to pay that back and more to get things to where they need to be. The dividends and CEO remuneration payed out over that period come nowhere close to covering that shortfall.