Wessex Water bill increases 2025-26

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For metered customers

We expect a typical bill to increase by around 21%. This is equivalent to around £10 per month.

But the exact increase will depend on the volume of water used – customers who use less water than average will see a slightly smaller overall increase. It will also vary if customers have a different supplier for water/sewerage.

For unmetered customers

We expect a typical bill to increase by around 24%. This is equivalent to around £15 per month.

But the exact increase will depend on the rateable value of the customer’s property. It will also vary if customers have a different supplier for water/sewerage.

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Over the next five years, along with the rest of the water industry, we are embarking upon a major programme of work across our water and sewerage networks. To achieve this, our regulator, Ofwat, has approved £2.9 billion of new investment. Much of this investment is required to meet new standards and obligations that are coming into force, as well as more stretching targets that regulators are setting for the water industry from 2025 onwards.

Unfortunately, delivering these improvements means that bills will need to increase. But bills will still be lower in real terms – after accounting for inflation – than they were in 2010.

Even so, we recognise that bill increases are unwelcome. Our charges have been set in line with regulators’ decisions, after careful consideration of the best balance between the need for further investment and keeping bills affordable. We will be delivering more efficiently than ever before, making as much use of innovation to ensure the best value for money.

And if we don’t deliver the investment or achieve the targets set by the regulator, we will return money to customers. This will be reflected in lower customer bills in future years.

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Ofwat’s final determination sets out how much money we can collect in total each year. It does not set a cap on our specific charges.

To help customers understand what its decision meant for them, Ofwat also set out an expected bill increase for all companies. For Wessex Water, this was 13%. But this figure is before inflation – when inflation is accounted for, the actual increase is around 3.5% more.

In setting charges, we have also reflected the latest information we have on the number of customers in our region, the fairest balance of charges between households and businesses, and the balance between different household customers (eg, those we provide with water and sewerage services, and those who just use one service from us). This ensures we will collect the correct amount of money this year – but it means the change in average bills for a combined customer is different to what Ofwat has set out.

Finally, each customer’s actual bill increase will also depend on whether they are on a meter (and, if so, how much water they consume), the rateable value of their property (if not on a meter), and the time of year the customer is billed. Ofwat’s figure is just an illustrative average to help with comparisons between different companies – it doesn’t account for all these factors.

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Wessex Water serves a largely rural area, so we have more pipes and a larger number of small treatment works per customer to maintain than other water companies, and the cost of moving water across our region is expensive.

Wessex Water also has the highest proportion of area (more than any other water company) that is particularly sensitive when it comes to nutrients. More than a quarter of the proposed investment (£900 million) over the next five years is required to strip nutrients out of treated wastewater discharges so housebuilding and growth can continue in these areas while protecting the water environment.

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For water only customers

Over the next five years, the biggest investment areas are:

• Taking forward critical planning and design work for new potential water supply options to ensure we have enough water for years to come. This includes two new reservoirs in Cheddar and the Mendips, and an innovative scheme to transfer water via a new pipeline from Poole to other parts of our region.
• Rolling out smart meters to more than 200,000 properties over the next five years, beginning with around 45,000 meters this coming year. Smart meters will help us to detect leaks more quickly, as well as giving customers more information about their own water use. This will help us to reduce leakage rates and meet environmental targets to reduce overall water demand in our region by 20% by 2038.
• Spending more than £60 million to maintain our industry-leading record on drinking water quality, including replacing a further 8,000 lead pipes across our network.

This is on top of £250 million in capital investment over the next five years, to maintain our assets and ensure our network remains fit for purpose into the future.

For wastewater only customers

Over the next five years, the biggest investment areas are:

• Spending around £1 billion on reducing nutrients in treated wastewater discharges. Excess nutrients can result in high algal growth, which can deprive the waterways of oxygen, destroy habitats and kill wildlife. To address this, we will remove an additional 150 tonnes of phosphorus from rivers by 2030, helping us to achieve our long-term target of restoring the health of our river and coastal waters. We are also rolling out more than 400 devices which will continuously monitor river water quality to ensure we can detect and address problems quickly.
• Committing £500m to tackle the worst storm overflow issues in our region, more than double what we are currently spending. This will reduce the number of spills at 143 overflow sites. In doing so, we will be maximising the use of nature-based solutions such as wetlands, which can treat overflows in a more cost-effective and more environmentally friendly way.
• Investing more than £100 million to increase the capacity of our water recycling centres and ensure we can accommodate new development in our region. 

This is on top of £550 million in capital investment over the next five years, to maintain our assets and ensure our network remains fit for purpose into the future.

For water and wastewater customers

Over the next five years, some of the main investment areas are:

• Spending around £1 billion on reducing nutrients in treated wastewater discharges. Excess nutrients can result in high algal growth, which can deprive the waterways of oxygen, destroy habitats and kill wildlife. To address this, we will remove an additional 150 tonnes of phosphorus from rivers by 2030, helping us to achieve our long-term target of restoring the health of our river and coastal waters. We are also rolling out more than 400 devices which will continuously monitor river water quality to ensure we can detect and address problems quickly.
• Committing £500m to tackle the worst storm overflow issues in our region, more than double what we are currently spending. This will reduce the number of spills at 143 overflow sites. In doing so, we will be maximising the use of nature-based solutions such as wetlands, which can treat overflows in a more cost-effective and more environmentally friendly way.
• Spending more than £60 million to maintain our industry-leading record on drinking water quality, including replacing a further 8,000 lead pipes across our network.

This is on top of £800 million in capital investment over the next five years to maintain our assets and ensure our network remains fit for purpose into the future.

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Innovation is at the heart of our plan because purely traditional approaches would mean both spending more and charging customers more. Some areas where we are doing things differently are:

• Lead pipes - using trenchless technology, which installs the new service pipe at the same time as pulling out the old pipe, with minimal excavation and risk to other utilities and very little disruption to the homeowner.
• Sewer blockages - increasing the number of monitors in our sewer network and using smart AI tools to analyse the data from these devices to identify issues faster.

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The amount that we can invest is tightly controlled by our regulator, Ofwat. Over the last four years, we have spent all the money we have been allowed on our services.

Our new five-year plan does not include any investments that have already been funded – this new investment has been approved by the regulator and is going towards meeting new standards and obligations. We are not asking customers to pay for the same investment twice.

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In our proposed business plan, due to the significant level of investment required, shareholders will be reinvesting the totality of all profits over the five years. This means that no dividends are expected.

Any dividends would be due to outperformance – that is, if we exceed regulatory performance targets, or we deliver the required improvements more efficiently than expected.

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We make sure that the difference between metered and unmetered bills reflects the difference in the cost of providing these services.

In recent years, the average unmetered water use has increased as lower-usage unmetered customers switch to meters, leaving the higher-usage customers on unmetered charges. If unmetered water consumption increases, unmetered bills need to increase by slightly more to ensure that charges remain fair and accurate.

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We cannot say exactly how bills will change in future years, as they will be affected by things such as inflation and how we perform over the next year. However, at this stage, we would expect to see smaller bill increases in future years. This is because the step change in investment requirements - which is the main reason for this year’s increases - is happening this year, so we can begin to deliver improvements as soon as possible.

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Further information on why bills are increasing is set out on our website.