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Water Bills Set to Mount

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Water Bills Set to Mount

Water bills could rise by 30% from 2005 as water companies increase spending to meet continued regulatory requirements, with regulator Ofwat more less admitting that the increases are inevitable.

Spending by water companies is expected to rise by £4bn from £17bn in 200-2005 to £21bn in 2005-2010, and those expenses will have to be passed on to the consumer.

These increases do not take into account the costs associated with implementing the Water Framework Directive, costs which have been estimated to be as high as £9bn and likely to result in even heftier increases to householders’ bills.

Such increases can do nothing but exacerbate the number of bad debts, as even greater numbers of consumers find difficulty in paying the ever rising bills.

Bad debts have been rising since the Water Act removed the threat of disconnection from the water industry’s debt collection armoury in 1999. The amount of customer bad debt now stands at nearly £800 million, up 17% since 1999.

As water companies prepare to increase bills to the planned expenditure, the only question is how much more money will they have to divert to spend on trying to deal with the escalation in bad debts.

 

 

    Related Links:

    Ofwat - Water and sewerage regulator for England and Wales.

    Reuters - UK water regulator confirms 2004/05 price rises

 

 

Published Monday November 10th 2003. Updated Thursday 11th December 2003.

 

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