Water bill compensation to double for poor customer service

The government has today launched a consultation to double reimbursement for water company customers when their basic water services are hit.

The Government has today (Monday 12 August) set out tough new measures to crack down on water companies failing their customers. Under new plans, households and businesses will be entitled to higher compensation rates from water companies, and in a wider range of circumstances when basic water services are hit. 

The new proposals set out by Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Steve Reed, will double the amount of reimbursement that customers are legally entitled to when key standards are not met by water companies. 

Subject to an eight-week consultation, government proposals will double payments for all existing standards and will more than double the payments for certain highly disruptive incidents, such as failing to provide notice of supply interruptions and missing arranged appointments with customers. 

The government will also expand the list of circumstances that can trigger compensation, including automatic payments for boil notices when drinking water standards drop, or when water companies fail to conduct meter readings or installations as promised.  

A boil notice means you must boil your water before you drink it, cook with it, or brush your teeth. The changes would mean that recent outages in Brixham and Bramley earlier this year would have automatically led to compensation for all customers, where there was no entitlement before.    

Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Steve Reed said:     

After years of failure, households and businesses have been let down by water companies time and time again.  

The new Government will clean up the water industry and turn the tide on the destruction of our waterways ensuring water companies protect the interests of their customers and the environment.”