Thu, 23 Oct 2025

Thu, 23 Oct 2025 Water companies told to refund £260m to customers for poor performance

But bills are still due to rise to fund improvements to water infrastructure.

* England and Wales' water companies have been ordered to refund £260m to customers due to poor performance.
* 40% of this money has already been taken off this year's bills, with the rest to be taken off next year's bills.
* Despite the refunds, bills are still set to rise steeply until 2030 to fund upgrades to the water system.
* Thames Water has been penalised £75.2m for its performance in 2024/25 and was given a one-star rating by the Environment Agency (EA).
* The EA gave England's main water and sewerage companies their worst ever combined score for environmental performance in 2024, with many companies failing to meet targets on areas such as pollution and leaks.
* Underperformance payments have resulted in cheaper bills for customers, but these will be offset by future price rises.
* Bills rose by an average of 26% in April, and are set to rise further until at least 2030.
* The Environment Secretary has acknowledged that the water system is "failing" and promised to take action to fix it.
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