Water plan has 40% price increase

More than 60% of SWW customers are already on a water meter

Bills for some South West Water (SWW) customers could rise to nearly �1,000 a year under proposals submitted in its new draft business plan.

In its plan for 2010 to 2015, which it submitted to industry regulator Ofwat, unmetered customers could see a 40% rise, bringing an annual bill to �951.

Metered customers would see a 12% rise, with the average bill going up to �421.

The Consumer Council for Water said it was concerned. SWW said it expected 82% of customers would be metered by 2015.

Ability to pay

The average metered water and sewerage bill could rise by 12.5% from �373 starting next year to �421 in 2015. More than 60% of SWW customers are already on a water meter.

Those not on meters can expect their bills to rise by 40%, from �677 in 2009 to �951 in 2015.

All these figures are before inflation, so the bills could be even higher.

The Consumer Council for Water said it believed that customers would not be happy with above-inflation price rises, especially in light of other household bill increases.

Charles Howeson, chairman of the Consumer Council for Water Western, said the move could "push prices up beyond what customers are willing and able to pay".

South West Water said the increases - which it said were low - were partly down to higher energy and operating costs and work needed to replace and renew water and sewerage infrastructure.

Efficiency savings

SWW Chief Executive Chris Loughlin said: "In response to what our customers told us, we have put forward a plan with prices as low as possible in each year and no sudden price shocks.

"This plan does not propose a major infrastructure investment such as we have seen in the past 18 years, with nearly �2bn invested in putting in place often first-time sewage treatment for communities all round the South West peninsula."

He said that the plan also included efficiency savings of �20m.

SWW came top of a list of most prolific polluters out of the UK's 27 water companies. It has had 47 pollution convictions in the past five years, the Environment Agency said, and had been fined �171,000.

In 2007, SWW owner the Pennon Group made pre-tax profits of �154.9m

Ofwat is due to make its final decision on the plan by November 2009.

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