Water bills set to go up

Anglian Water has hiked customer bills by eight per cent despite multi-million pound fines for poor performance, and soaring profits over the last couple of years.

The privately-owned water provider, which covers the Lincolnshire area among other sections of the East Midlands, recorded operating profits of £255.9 million for the first six months of 2023/24 — a 10.6 per cent increase, writes Local Democracy Reporter Ellis Karran.

However, Anglian Water’s end of year accounts for the full 2023/24 financial year are not yet available, but appear on course to shatter last year’s profit margins of £169 million.

Despite this clear uptake in money coming in, customers are still being expected to pay premiums on their bills from the previous year, to the tune of an 8.2 per cent increase on last year’s prices.

This means a typical Anglian Water customer will be paying £529 for water and sewerage bills in 2024/25, compared to £489 for the year previous.

While price increases and additional cost burdens have become worryingly uncommon for the general public up and down the country in recent years, an element of controversy is attached to the water sector in particular, given the well-documented poor performance of the private companies.

Last year, Anglian Water was ordered by water regulator Ofwat to pay back some £22 million in the form of lower customer bills, following a review of performance targets.

The national water regulator described Anglian Water as a “lagging company” in terms of storm overflow management and sewage spills into beds of water.

Indeed, last year sewage spills in Lincolnshire almost doubled on Anglian Water’s watch, with the company being responsible for 31,623 spills in 2023, a 97 per cent increase on the 2022 figure.

Anglian Water blamed “more extreme weather events” on the increase, as storms Babet and Henk caused flooding headaches across Lincolnshire and beyond late last year and early into 2024.

2023 was the sixth wettest year since records began, but the Environment Agency said that was little excuse for the volume of sewage spills across the water board in recent times.

This has prompted a fourfold increase in the investigation of water companies by the Environment Agency, fully funded by government and water company permits.

All but two water companies in England and Wales are increasing bills this year, and Anglian Water’s 8.2 per cent spike is only fifth highest of all.