South East Water bills rise by six pence per day while increasing financial support packages

South East Water confirmed the average household will pay £242 a year or 66 pence a day for their tap water supply from 1 April.

The amount the company can charge its customers for their clean drinking water supply is set every five years by the independent regulator Ofwat and takes in an agreed level of inflation which has been applied to bills in the next financial year. The package of investment and service levels that must be delivered, within these same price limits, is also set by Ofwat.

This increase of 9.48 per cent on last year – an average of 6p a day – is due to inflation. The increase will help with the significant costs the company is seeing for electricity and chemicals needed to produce drinking water at its treatment works and to pump it around its network of 9,000 miles of pipe.

At the same time, South East Water has increased the income threshold by nine per cent for its Social Tariff, which caps the cost of tap water and waste water, from £16,480 to £18,005 so that more customers can receive financial help.

Its innovative data sharing scheme with three local councils to automatically identify and sign up eligible customers who would benefit from extra financial help is being expanded with five more local councils about to join.

This has already put more than 6,000 customers straight onto the tariff without the need for them to apply with this figure expecting to more than double in the coming financial year.

A Trusted Partners Scheme, working with charities and voluntary groups in the third sector, is also automatically transferring people onto the tariff and Priority Services Register without the need to apply.

Despite a very challenging 12 months with the weather both in winter and summer breaking all previous records, the company has been focusing on keeping its vital services running, and investing in new infrastructure.

South East Water is in the fourth of a five year investment programme which is seeing £489 million being spent on the very latest water testing technology to meet rigorous water quality regulations, the replacement of underground pipes and leakage control, developing new water resources and the introduction of new treatment processes.

From April 23 to March 24 the company will be investing more than £100 million, to continue to improve the service it gives to its customers.

Major projects to be started or underway from April include:

• A brand new water treatment works in Aylesford, Kent
• Expansion of Bewl Water Treatment Works situated on the boundary between Kent and Sussex
• Improvement work at College Avenue Water Treatment Works, Maidenhead, Berkshire.
• Start of construction for a new water main in Kent linking Wellwood to Potters Corner boosting supplies to the Ashford area.

Other initiatives include:

• Auto Enrolment using the Department of Works and Pensions Data Share Scheme that will help identify more customers that may be eligible for affordability tariffs
• Increased promotion of company funded Helping Hand Scheme available to customers who have fallen into arrears but are attempting to maintain payments. This scheme reduces customer arrears enabling them to focus on current payments
• Supporting customers on benefits who are in arrears through the Department of Works and Pensions Water Direct Scheme by reducing their payments to a minimum through the Water Direct scheme
• Continued promotion of the company’s general payment plan options to help customers who are struggling with both the cost increase and general cost of living crisis by ensuring that customer payment plans are not increased to an unmanageable level and offering payment breaks.

Customer Services Director, Tanya Sephton, said:

“This is undoubtedly a very tough time for everyone and we are working hard to expand initiatives in place quickly to make sure help is given where it is needed most and often without our customers needing to ask.

“Our average bill works out at 66 pence per day for all the water supplied to the home for drinking, cooking, cleaning, gardening and of course the extra hygiene we know is so important.

“We really do encourage anyone worried about their bill to contact us as soon as possible and we’ll help find the right options for them. This could be advice and water saving devices to help reduce water usage, or finding the right tariff for their circumstances.”

Further details of how South East Water is helping struggling customers to pay their bills can be found here (https://www.southeastwater.co.uk/help/priority-services/help-paying-your-bill).

To sign-up for the company’s Priority Services Register which is available for customers with medical conditions, restricted mobility, additional needs, sight and hearing issues who may need some extra support during a water supply emergency contact the Customer Care team on 0800 952 4000 or go to southeastwater.co.uk/priority.

South East Water supplies drinking water to homes across Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire to 2.3 million people.