Upset over bill increases fuels rise in complaints to watchdog about water companies
- Overall complaints from households to water companies fell by 8% in 2024-25 BUT complaints brought to the consumer watchdog CCW reached their highest level in nine years.
- Bills dominated complaining customers’ concerns on the back of the highest water bill rises since privatisation of the industry.
- Thames Water, Yorkshire Water, South West Water, Affinity Water and SES Water named as the poorest performing water companies, while Wessex Water, Portsmouth Water and Bristol Water top the rankings.
Frustration and worry among households over soaring water bills saw the consumer watchdog receive the highest number of complaints about water companies in almost a decade.
New figures released by the Consumer Council for Water (CCW) reveal that complaints escalated to the watchdog by household customers in England and Wales rose for the third year running, up 3% to 8,235 in 2024-25 from 7,977 in 2023-24 – the highest level in nine years.
This was despite a more encouraging 8% fall in the overall number of complaints made by households to water companies, down to 205,853 compared to 222,956 in the previous year.
Issues with billing dominated complaints, accounting for around two-thirds (63%) of complaints made to water companies and to CCW (66%). Among those brought to CCW, there was a 138% rise in complaints about the scale of bill increases, while the number of people saying they could not afford the higher charges jumped nearly two-fifths (39%).
This came against the backdrop of the largest single-year increase in charges since privatisation, announced by water companies in January 2025 – increasing the average household water and sewerage bill from under £500 to more than £600 a year.
The increase will help fund a package of investment in improving services for customers, securing water resources into the future as well as cleaning up our rivers, seas, lakes and streams.
There was also a significant rise in households complaining to CCW about poor experiences with smart meter installations – up 48% on 2023-24. Meanwhile, complaints handled by CCW about environmental issues fell 31%, although they remain well above previous levels amid continuing anger over pollution from storm overflows.
Although it’s encouraging to see complaints to water companies falling, more households are turning to CCW for help than at any point in the last nine years.
Bills remain the top concern for households, and we can see April’s unprecedented price rises are already hurting a lot of people. Clearer communication from companies could prevent many of these complaints by helping customers understand how their money is being spent and what support is available if they are struggling. Seeing is believing: if people are paying more for their water, they need to see real improvements in the services they receive.
CCW assesses each company’s performance based on the number of complaints they receive per 10,000 households served and how effectively these were handled. Thames Water and Yorkshire Water showed some signs of improvement but remain the poorest performers among water and sewerage companies, and are now joined by South West Water. All three companies were rated poor on both performance metrics.
For companies providing water-only services, SES Water and Affinity Water were the worst performers, with the highest complaint volumes and the poorest complaint handling.
CCW has praised the performance of Wessex Water and Portsmouth Water as both maintained their position at the top of the rankings for a second consecutive year. They are now joined by Bristol Water and these three were the only companies to achieve the highest rating across both measures of performance.
CCW is continuing to work collaboratively with the industry through our company complaint assessments and other work to identify the root causes of customers’ dissatisfaction and share best practice.