Kent water bills rise to fund pipe network and sewage improvements

KentOnline / KMTV

Along with a new reservoir, £7.9 billion worth of investment will go into the country's water systems, but with Medway having the largest bill hike in the UK, how do people feel about the increase?  Finn Macdiarmid reports.

Transcript

00:00Growth will not come without a fight. Without a government willing to take the right decisions now

00:06to change our country's future for the better.

00:10One of those changes is a £7.9m investment into the country's water infrastructure,

00:15including new reservoirs, the repair of pipe networks and reduction of sewage discharges.

00:20But this comes with a reported average 10% rise in annual water bills across England and Wales,

00:25said to be in full effect by this April.

00:28But nowhere in the country is the water bill going to be as high as some parts of Kent,

00:31with Southern Water's average annual price rising to £703,

00:36an increase of £200 from its last annual price.

00:40Now, you can use online tools to find out who your water supplier is,

00:43and there are some overlaps between Southern and South East Water,

00:46but areas like the Medway towns are exclusively supplied by Southern Water,

00:50who have a higher planned increase than other water suppliers.

00:53They should have been doing this all over the years,

00:55and now we wouldn't have to put our bills up if they did this the last 20, 30 years,

00:59which they have not been doing and maintaining anything,

01:02and which is why we're having all the burst water mains due to the cold and the frost.

01:06Because they failed to invest in the infrastructure that obviously was part of their remit,

01:14they failed to do that, and now we have to pay.

01:17I think if they had invested in the infrastructure

01:21before the prices started going up, when things started going wrong,

01:24then maybe they wouldn't have to put the prices up in the first place.

01:26Some businesses in the Rochester area say they've come to expect rising bills,

01:30and split across the year, it will be more manageable.

01:33But some businesses say that it's just another one of these bills that they have to pay,

01:36and the number isn't going down on any of them, making them worried for their future.

01:40I think when you say £200 a year, in itself it doesn't sound like a lot for a business.

01:46However, when you reflect on all of the other additions that we've got in 2025 planned,

01:51it's just another thing that adds to a burden of what, as business owners, we have to face.

01:55And also as a homeowner, not just as a business owner.

01:59They comment that they haven't invested enough in infrastructure over the last number of years,

02:04but that actually isn't our burden. That's poor planning, for whatever reason.

02:10Southern Water say we understand an increase in bills is never welcome.

02:13Customers will see the sharpest rise this spring,

02:16to allow us to frontload investment into major infrastructure projects,

02:19with future annual increases falling for the rest of the 2025-30 spending period.

02:24While some people have questioned why the cost of infrastructure is being pushed onto the consumer,

02:29water companies say that they aren't in control of the investment,

02:32and that it lies with the regulator.

02:34Many in Medway say that during the cost-of-living crisis,

02:37further increases to their bills will only hurt them further.

02:40Finn McDermid for KMTV in Rochester.

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