Herald Express: Water bills to rise again

Last week delivered some shocking news – and no, I’m not talking about the latest Epstein horrors or Suella Braverman’s overdue defection to Reform (nothing shocking about that…).  

I’m referring to news that will leave a sour taste in the mouth of many in South Devon: our water bills are going up - again.  

Specifically, bills are rising by an average of £33 per household from April this year, meaning the average annual bill for a South West Water customer now stands at a shocking £740. 

That is a 5.4% increase year-on-year, or if you go back to 2021, roughly a 57% increase in just five years. According to Water UK, the trade association for the water industry, the hike in bills is needed to fund infrastructure upgrades and stop sewage entering our rivers and seas.  

I am sure I am not alone in finding those words insulting. Back in 2025, when water bills rose by 26% on average, protecting our rivers and seas from sewage was cited as a reason. In 2024, it was the same story. Yet, in those two years, the sewage crisis reached unprecedented levels.  

At a Westminster Hall debate last month, I spoke about the dire situation at the Harbertonford waste water treatment works, where storm overflows discharged into the Harbourne river for more than 3,500 hours in 2024. In other words, raw sewage was pumped into the river, which flows into the River Dart, for 40% of that year.  

This was not an isolated incident. I was spoilt for choice on examples of South West Water failing its duty to protect the environment and its customers in South Devon.  

That debate was partly prompted by successive water outages experienced by South East Water customers in Kent and Sussex. In the run up to Christmas, taps ran dry for 24,000 customers there. A few weeks later, many of those same customers and thousands more faced low or no water supply.  

South East Water blamed the situation on its ageing pipe system – notably, the company hiked bills by an average of 20% in January 2025, partly to fund infrastructure upgrades. Listening to my colleague Mike Martin, Liberal Democrat MP for Tunbridge Wells, talk about the crisis, I was struck by the similarities to the cryptosporidium outbreak in Brixham.  

Much like we faced, the communication from the water company in Kent and Sussex was poor to non-existent. Like Susan Davy, South East Water’s CEO hid from the local press. Previously he has said he avoids interviews during water outages because the focus would be on his pay and bonus, which stood at £400,000 and £115,000, respectively, last year.  

The situation is farcical and highlights once again that water companies do not care about their customers or the environment. For years, they enriched their shareholders, while pumping sewage into our rivers and failing to invest in infrastructure. Now the crisis has reached public attention, they want us to pay for their historic mistakes.  

We must completely overhaul how water companies are run. The Liberal Democrats believe this calls for a new ownership model where water companies are mutually owned by customers and professionally managed.  

Yet the government’s latest water white paper only offers piecemeal improvements. Surely providing a stable supply of clean drinking water and keeping our river system clean, to protect nature and the environment, are basic functions of a water company? 

Communities across the country are fed up with empty promises, while their rivers and coastlines are ravaged by corporate greed.  

Nothing less than a serious restructure of the water industry will do.  

If you would like to contact me about this issue or any other issue you face, please email me at caroline.voaden.mp@parliament.uk