Social tariffs and discounts

You may qualify for lower bills with our Social Tariff. We match the Social Tariff to the water company that has historically provided water and sewerage services to your area.

• Social Tariff freephone number: 08000720174

We also offer WaterSure and WaterDirect products.

Our prices

We understand the impact of rising prices. We always look for ways we can optimise the charges that you see on your bills.

• Our prices are lower than those of the regional supplier in your area.
• We apply a 2.5% discount to the volume of water you use.
• We offer a £3.50 discount if you pay by direct debit.
• We offer a £1.50 discount if you receive paperless bills.

Debt-matching

We understand that once customers get into debt, it can be difficult for them to work their way out. In April 2024, we introduced a debt-matching scheme. Under the scheme, we engage with customers who are experiencing financial difficulties and have built up debt.

Together, we work out how much they can afford to pay and offer to match these payments. Please contact us if you think you qualify for this scheme.

Our opening times

In the last year we have extended our contact centre opening hours.

Previously, our contact centre was open on weekdays and Saturday mornings.

Now, customers can contact us from 8am to 8pm on weekdays and from 9am to 5pm on weekends and bank holidays.

For any water or sewerage emergencies, we’re available seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Our response to webchats

We know that webchat is very convenient for your daily life. Webchat provides prompt responses to the issues you raise.

Last year, we successfully answered 99% of webchat requests. We responded to all these requests within 30 seconds.

Our response to calls

We understand how frustrating it can be when you call and experience long wait times. We pride ourselves on our quick response to calls we receive.

Last year, we successfully answered 98% of all calls we received. 89% of these calls were answered within 20 seconds.  

Customer complaints

We strive to provide excellent service to reduce dissatisfaction and potential complaints. Unfortunately, complaints do happen and in 2024-25, our customer complaints increased from 26 to 40 per 10,000 customers. We believe this increase is due to changes to our direct debit arrangements. We will work hard to lessen any customer dissatisfaction this coming year.

Bristol Water had the fewest complaints, at 23 per 10,000 customers. In contrast, Thames Water had the most, with 139 per 10,000 customers.

Our vulnerable customers

We understand that customers often face challenges when they feel vulnerable. We want to try and help our customers where we can, and make things easier for them. To do this, we have a vulnerable customer strategy. This presents an overview of the services we currently provide, and those we plan to offer in the future. A key element of this strategy is our priority services register (PSR). If customers face a vulnerability, they can ask to join the PSR. We will prioritise their needs if we lose supply unexpectedly.

Customer satisfaction

To help us understand customer’s experiences with us better, we regularly ask for feedback about our service. We use the Net Promoter Score (NPS) to measure our customer satisfaction levels. The NPS measures the results of one survey question: “How likely would you be to recommend this company to a friend or colleague?” Our NPS score last year was 40. Octopus Energy, known for great customer service, has an NPS score of 25.

Supply interruptions

We work hard to prevent any loss of water supply to our customers. However, incidents can arise on our network or on the network of other water companies that we are connected to, like a burst water main. Where these incidents happen, we work hard to restore water supplies as soon as possible. Last year, we reported six water supply interruptions that lasted longer than 24 hours. Most of these interruptions (85%) were caused by issues on the networks of other water companies that we are connected to.

Our water quality

The maintenance of safe and high-quality drinking water is our most important regulatory obligation.

To meet this obligation, we regularly collect samples to test the quality of our water and, in fact, will carry out proportionately more sampling than many other water companies.

Our leakage performance

Unfortunately, some level of water will always leak from our network. This might not seem important to you, but any increase in leakage will affect your bills.

Last year we lost 54 litres per customer per day from the network. While this may sound a lot, it is almost half the industry average of 111 litres per customer per day. We will continue to work hard to identify, fix and therefore minimise leaks from our network.