Southern Water announces household water and wastewater bills for 2019-20

  Water company confirms average household water and wastewater bill will rise by just 3p a day

Our average combined bill for water and wastewater treatment services is set to fall in real terms yet again.

The typical combined water and sewage service bill for a domestic customer is expected to be £438, which is £1.20 a day - an increase of only 3p a day or £4 a year.

A company transforming for the future

Ian McAulay, Southern Water Chief Executive, said: "We are poised to start our largest ever investment programme with plans to spend £4 billion between 2020 and 2025 compared to £3.2 billion up to 2020. We will be spending £800 million on improving the environment alone. Yet as part of our promise to customers to protect the environment and deliver high quality, value for money service we will do all this while bills continue to drop in real terms. Over the course of the forthcoming five-year business plan, before inflation bills will fall by more than 3 per cent.

"We are two years into a three-year company transformation and customers are now truly starting to see improvements to our services. This transformation also recognises the vital duties we undertake to the incredible environment in which we operate, from the world heritage chalk streams of Hampshire, through the preciousSouth DownsNationalPark, to our 700 miles of beautiful coastline. In coming years we will prove that we can be vital stewards of that environment without pushing increased costs onto bills."

Where your money goes

Southern Water's bills cover the day-to-day running costs of supplying customers with high-quality drinking water and taking away and treating their wastewater. In addition they support our investments - in 2018-19 we are on course to invest £490 million on assets while in 2019-20, a further £396 million will be committed.

This includes renewal and expansion of water mains and sewers, along with schemes to help prevent flooding, protect water supplies, reduce leakage, improve water quality, protect the environment and enhance wastewater treatment.

 Key investments include:

• Misconnections - we'll continue our project to find incorrectly plumbed waste pipes. This is part of ourinnovative £31.5 million Bathing Water Enhancement Programme, which aims to bring bathing water quality in seven areas across our region up to the ‘excellent' standard by 2020
• Upgrades costing almost £50 million to wastewater treatment works in Worthing, West Sussex, andEastbourne
• Woolston Wastewater Treatment Works, Southampton - in 2018/19 we'll be approaching the end of our flagship £63 million project to completely redevelop the site. The end result will be a modern treatment works to serve the community long into the future.
• Thanet sewer improvements - our £30 million project to improve the sewer network in Thanet and prevent internal flooding  continues
• Chichesterpipeline - we started work on our £15 million 10km sewer to serve new developments planned for the area. This is a large investment for the city.

Save water, save energy, save money

With 90% of Southern Water's customers now on a water meter, households only pay for what they use. This means they can save money on bills by taking simple steps to use less water. Even non-metered households can save money by cutting water use as 30%of energy used in a typical home is used to heat water. So by saving water, customers can reduce energy bills and help the environment.

Easy ways to save water, energy and money include the following:

• Wait for a full load before using your dishwasher or washing machine
• Look out for leaks - dripping taps and leaking pipes can waste lots of water
• Have a four-minute shower instead of a bath to save around 45 litres of water
• Don't leave taps running when you brush your teeth - as well as wasting water, you're pouring money down the drain.

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Notes to editors

• Southern Water's bills for 2018-19 are flat year-on-year and so falling in real terms, as measured against the Retail Price Index (RPI), which tracks the cost of everyday goods and services. RPI was 3.2 per cent in December 2018, according to the Office of National Statistics
• The forecast weighted average household bills for 2019-20 to be:
  1. Water                   £156 (a change of minus £2, a reduction of 1.0 per cent)
  2. Wastewater       £282 (a change of £3, an increase of 1.0 per cent)
  3. Combined           £438 (a net change of £1, no percentage change to 1 decimal place)
• Southern Water's bills for 2019-2020 are middle of the sector, with an average bill increase across theUKsector of  2 per cent
• We are sensitive that some customers face real financial difficulty so we also offer a wide range of advice and support, including tailored advice on saving water, energy and money. All the information and contact details are available on our website:www.southernwater.co.uk

For further information, please contact the media team by emailingmediateam@southernwater.co.ukor calling 01903 272230.