Water bills could hit £2,000 a year by 2050, regulator warns
9 May 2025, 15:53
The average water bill could hit £2,000 per year by 2050, regulator Ofwat has warned.
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As part of its submission to the government-led water inquiry, Sir Jon Cunliffe warned that without “significant investment”, Brits will see bills soar and the country could even face shortages in the years to come.
Its submission read: “Significant investment is needed to provide for these new sources of water, as well as to improve river water quality standards, to help meet net zero and for other improvements to the network.
“The additional investment could mean average bills reach over £1,000 by 2050, before inflation (and around £2,000 including expected impact of inflation).”
Part of this investment, around £300cbn over the next 25 years, will be spent on cleaning up Britain's rivers and waterways.
The government commissioned an inquiry into British waters amid rising anger and soaring bills following privatisation in the 1990s.
Brits have already faced an increase of £123 this year alone.
The 26% increase equates to a rise of around £10 a month, from £40 to £50.
The change took the average water and wastewater bill from £480 to £603 for the next year alone.
But millions of households faced even steeper rises, with Southern Water customers told they will see a 47% increase, Hafren Dyfrdwy and South West Water bills rising by 32%, Thames Water customers warned they will see a 31% hike and Yorkshire Water raising bills by 29%.
Bournemouth Water customers will also saw a 32% increase in their bills.
Ofwat’s submission added tax-payer money could continue to misspent: “It is vital that there is clear ownership over these plans, that the processes do not hold up vital investment and that they facilitate good decisions, so that customers’ money is properly spent.”
Amy Fairman, River Action UK’s head of campaigns, said: “Ofwat’s claim that bills could hit £2,000 by 2050 exposes decades of regulatory failure. These hikes aren’t inevitable – they’re the cost of letting polluting water companies underinvest, overcharge and dump sewage unchecked. It is why we’re calling for a systematic overhaul of the water industry away from the failed privatisation experiment, and launched a legal challenge to stop Ofwat unlawfully shifting the cost of failure on to customers. Polluters must pay.”
The Labour MP Clive Lewis, added: “Water is an essential resource and a public necessity. For decades, it has been starved of investment by profit-mining private corporations and shareholders seeking huge returns at all costs. That has left us all exposed to climate impacts and exorbitant bill rises.
“Decisions about water management and pricing are too important to leave to an unaccountable and seemingly increasingly partisan regulator; the government must put public, not-for-profit ownership on the table.”
