Nearly 14 million people face an unprecedented, one-off 12 per cent increase in water bills next year after a plea by Thames Water to be allowed to increase its household prices – because of a surge in the number of people refusing to pay.
Thames today revealed it had urged regulators to allow it to up bills in 2014-2015 by £29 before inflation as an exceptional “one-off”.
This would be on top of the 1.4 per cent increase households are already due to receive next Spring. The current bill is £354 a year.
Thames blamed a surge in bad debts from unpaid bills across its network – which stretches from Gloucestershire across London to the west of Essex and Kent.
The company, the biggest water company in Britain, added that Environment Agency rates were increasing, and that the bill for the construction of a new “Super Sewer”, the Thames Tideway Tunnel, was bigger than expected.
Water bills over a five-year cycle are typically set by regulators Ofwat, and never changed.
The Telegraph has the full article
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