Companies supplying water to Kent households have been slammed for introducing some of the biggest bill increases in England and Wales.
Families previously supplied by Mid Kent Water before it merged with South East Water can now expect a huge rise of 7.9 per cent, which equates to an average of £13 per year.
Southern Water has also announced a large increase of 5.6 per cent, or £20 per year on average. Both rises are above the three per cent rate of inflation.
Bills for other South East Water customers will increase by three per cent on April 1, Thames Water by 2.4 per cent and Sutton and East Surrey Water by 1.1 per cent.
However, customers of Folkestone and Dover Water can look forward to paying 0.3 per cent less than last year.
Kent County Council leader Paul Carter described the larger increases as being “totally unacceptable”.
He added: “I’m not sure the water companies are working together to maximise the opportunities to reduce the cost of supply.
“The more housing that is built, the more infrastructure that is needed and the only way to pay for that is by putting up rates.
“The current legislation where water companies have to charge existing customers for new homes is thoroughly unfair.
“The water resource issue should be much more linked to local development frameworks and where the planning takes place. I think Ofwat (the water regulator) has a major role to play in this.”
David Bland, chairman for the London and South East division of watchdog the Consumer Council for Water, accused the firms of hitting customers with higher bills because consumers had been too good at conserving water.
He said the firms had been losing out since the South East drought of 2005-07 because people were now more conscious about water consumption. Therefore, anyone on a water meter was saving money – but reducing the utility firms’ income.
However, both Ofwat and Kent’s providers denied this, saying they were operating within limits set back in 2004.
South East Water managing director Paul Butler said increases were to help pay for its £355 million investment in maintaining and improving water services.
He added: “While the majority of our
investment is funded by borrowing, bills do have to rise to help fund our water supply operations.”
Southern Water said its bill rise was to help pay for its £2 billion programme of improvements to its water supply and sewerage services.
Water planning and strategy manager Meyrick Gough said: “During the past four years we have been spending more on service improvements than at any time in our history, and this year will see investment of £300m to complete our improvement programme.”
Sutton and East Surrey Water has spent £95m on improvements, Folkestone and Dover about £30m and Thames Water about £4bn.
Ofwat chief executive Regina Finn said: “We needed to make some tough decisions back in 2004 when we set prices.
“Investment was vital, but we needed to balance this with keeping bills down.
“Across the whole of England and Wales our work has kept customers’ bills about £100 lower than they would otherwise have been.
“We are due to finalise prices for water customers for 2010 to 2015 at the end of this year and we will make sure they receive a fair deal.”
POSTED: 22/02/2009 08:00:00
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