Thames water price rise

[MXRod]

May have been covered elsewhere , but had a email today .
Monthly cost going up £16 on average

[Cabbage Patch]

I had a letter today telling me my direct debit is increasing by £22 per month. Doesn’t seem too bad until you consider I’m (just) in credit, my usage is only marginally higher than the previously and my current direct debit is £34. That’s a 65% increase!

Guess who’s paying for the mismanagement of their business.

[OutInTheShed]

Thames Water looks filthy cheap compared to South West, where it rains all the time.

[okgo]

Used to not even feature in my list of direct debits. But I’ve just seen it’s £60 now! I swear I paid 20 or something not that long ago.

Edited by okgo on Monday 24th February 20:35

[HTP99]

I'm awaiting the email/letter, currently pay £26 pm on a meter, £113 in credit, last bill was October, 2 bed semi just me and the wife.

I'm hearing of these circa 40% rises however I'm sure I heard that yes they are rising by that amount but over 3 or maybe 4 years as opposed to in one go?

[alangla]

OutInTheShed said:

Thames Water looks filthy cheap compared to South West, where it rains all the time.

Also discussed here https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

All the quoted prices for English water companies seem cheap compared to the nationalised monolith that supplies water in Scotland.

[B'stard Child]

Cabbage Patch said:

I had a letter today telling me my direct debit is increasing by £22 per month. Doesn’t seem too bad until you consider I’m (just) in credit, my usage is only marginally higher than the previously and my current direct debit is £34. That’s a 65% increase!

Anglian Water did the reverse my DD dropped from £40 to £28 because of water usage drop and a credit of £32 on the account

I've gone into my account and changed it back to £40 because they haven't got a bloody clue

My water usage is always lower in the autumn / winter than spring / summer so the autumn / winter 6 mths results in a credit

I had a new water meter fitted in Sept because my usage was lower than expected, they suspected the 10 year old meter was under reading - in reality the summer rain fall meant the water butts never ran out (800 litres of rainwater storage) drove the usage drop.

Since then they've fitted another new meter this time a "smart" water meter and it seems my water usage is zero litres since 27th Jan

Clearly I have used water about £20 worth (inc sewerage) not included on the bill

I've got bored with the game that AW play where they decrease my DD due to credit on my account and the following year increase it because of a debit on my account and now if they drop it I increase it again because I know I'll get a big increase in DD at the next bill

Since I've started doing that I've been pretty close to zero credit/debit after a year cycle.

[Byker28i]

We were paying around £1000 a year because of the size of the house. They kept saying they would send me comparisons of what I'd save if I went metered but after 3 months still hadn't, because 'difficulties'

I've gone metered, ended up with a huge credit and a low bill. They think I use an average of around 30 litres a day, were pricing me on the average users 400 litres a day

[B'stard Child]

Byker28i said:

We were paying around £1000 a year because of the size of the house. They kept saying they would send me comparisons of what I'd save if I went metered but after 3 months still hadn't, because 'difficulties'

I've gone metered, ended up with a huge credit and a low bill. They think I use an average of around 30 litres a day, were pricing me on the average users 400 litres a day

Yeah but we've discussed that elsewhere - you clearly have a meter issue working in your favour

[Gastons_Revenge]

alangla said:

OutInTheShed said:

Thames Water looks filthy cheap compared to South West, where it rains all the time.

Also discussed here https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

All the quoted prices for English water companies seem cheap compared to the nationalised monolith that supplies water in Scotland.

As someone else pointed out on that thread, Scottish Water's price rises absolutely pale in comparison to Southern Water and Thames Water's price rises.

[alangla]

Gastons_Revenge said:

alangla said:

OutInTheShed said:

Thames Water looks filthy cheap compared to South West, where it rains all the time.

Also discussed here https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

All the quoted prices for English water companies seem cheap compared to the nationalised monolith that supplies water in Scotland.

As someone else pointed out on that thread, Scottish Water's price rises absolutely pale in comparison to Southern Water and Thames Water's price rises.

Yeah, but our prices seem to be astronomical to begin with! Unless I’m missing something fundamental and all the prices quoted for England exclude sewage or something. Would be interesting to see a comparison of the combined council tax, water and sewage prices for, say Glasgow, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff and Belfast.

Also, as I mentioned on the other thread, I think there’s some big rises coming up here if & when they start properly monitoring sewage spills and start dealing with them. The price rises for certain English water companies do appear very, very steep & I’m happy to acknowledge that, but they do appear to be from a very low base, compared to the state run operator here.

Edited by alangla on Tuesday 25th February 09:54

[MrJuice]

thames does my waste water and I was looking at the breakdown yesterday on the pricing schedule. Prices are up 40% from later this year. Just like that.

I was looking at council tax too and what the charge would be in 10y if they kept to (just) 5% rises. Mine would be 4.5k+ a year. Insane! This is for a band E house. Nothing special, even if it is my castle.

[119]

Not sure I get why the size of house makes any difference to the amount of water someone would use, assuming 2/3 occupants.

[ewanjp]

I had an email telling me the average price rise but not the actual price rise. Have people now got the actual price rise? I'm assuming mine will be more as it's a larger property (tho I think they have us down as a 5 bed and we're actually 4.... I assume it's based on council tax rateable value or something so that's a hiding to nothing).

[B'stard Child]

ewanjp said:

I had an email telling me the average price rise but not the actual price rise. Have people now got the actual price rise? I'm assuming mine will be more as it's a larger property (tho I think they have us down as a 5 bed and we're actually 4.... I assume it's based on council tax rateable value or something so that's a hiding to nothing).

If you haven't converted to meter billing water will be based on an old rates based value calculation (from before "council tax" and come to think of it "poll tax" as well)

I converted to water meter back in 1993 because with only 2 of us in a band D house we halved our water costs compared to the rates based value based calculation

If we'd been a family of 5 (like my next door neighbour it would have been cheaper to stay on rates based value calculation) once their kids left home they went straight onto a meter)

[Byker28i]

Sorry how much - around 40%?

https://www.thameswater.co.uk/media-library/home/h...

[alscar]

ewanjp said:

I had an email telling me the average price rise but not the actual price rise. Have people now got the actual price rise? I'm assuming mine will be more as it's a larger property (tho I think they have us down as a 5 bed and we're actually 4.... I assume it's based on council tax rateable value or something so that's a hiding to nothing).

My annual bill received last week.
Based on rateable value as don’t want a meter - wife has horses.
2 of us - annual bill + 36% to £2,072.

[MrJuice]

alscar said:

My annual bill received last week.
Based on rateable value as don’t want a meter - wife has horses.
2 of us - annual bill + 36% to £2,072.

genuine question,

would it pay to get a borehole? and even a tank for drainage and then cancel all your water stuff

2k and rising is a lot of money

[alscar]

MrJuice said:

alscar said:

My annual bill received last week.
Based on rateable value as don’t want a meter - wife has horses.
2 of us - annual bill + 36% to £2,072.

genuine question,

would it pay to get a borehole? and even a tank for drainage and then cancel all your water stuff

2k and rising is a lot of money

We’ve been here for 20 years now and I guess if I had really looked into a borehole then ,I suspect you are quite right.
I imagine the cost today would run into 5 figures so still might be worth it but not sure we would be here long enough for payback as considering moving.

[Dr_Rick]

alangla said:

Yeah, but our prices seem to be astronomical to begin with! Unless I’m missing something fundamental and all the prices quoted for England exclude sewage or something. Would be interesting to see a comparison of the combined council tax, water and sewage prices for, say Glasgow, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff and Belfast.

Also, as I mentioned on the other thread, I think there’s some big rises coming up here if & when they start properly monitoring sewage spills and start dealing with them. The price rises for certain English water companies do appear very, very steep & I’m happy to acknowledge that, but they do appear to be from a very low base, compared to the state run operator here.

Unfortunately I'm in Band H here in Edinburgh, and for FY2025-26 we've just had an 8% uplift added to the bill.

Item FY2024/25 FY2025/26
Council Tax £3,546.84 £3,830.60
Water £505.80 £555.84
Sewerage £586.98 £644.94
Total £4,639.62 £5,031.38

The website tells me that the Water / Sewerage were lifted by 9.9% from last year.