THE huge rise in water bills by Southern Water has been described by one Crowborough pensioner as “disgraceful”.
The water company, which is responsible for waste water in Crowborough increased bills by an average of 47% from 1 April. This is the highest of any British water firm.
Need for investment
Explaining the hike, Antonia Barton, Southern Water’s chief customer officer, said bigger bills were never welcome. But she added communities had told the company it needed to invest more to deliver “real change”. She also said water costs had been “kept artificially low for too long”.
But one Crowborough resident, who has asked not to be named, said: “My bill has gone up £20 a month. That might not seem very much but for a pensioner £240 over the year is not insignificant – and, of course, it comes at a time when my energy bills are rising and everything is getting more expensive.”
Disgraceful
The 75-year-old dismissed the water company’s explanation. “They say they need to increase bills to be able to invest in infrastructure. What have they been doing for the past ten years then? These utility companies seem more intent on making money for their shareholders than they do for improving their service. It’s disgraceful but no-one seems to do anything about it.”
Southern Water said they had increased their package of financial support for customers “needing a little help to pay”, A further 18,000 customers would be added to its 45% discount scheme – among a “raft of other measures”.
Worst performing
But this cut no ice with the resident who contacted Crowborough News to raise awareness of the bills increase. He added: “This is a company that has been fined tens of millions of pounds for dumping raw sewage into the sea and is one of the worst performing in the country. This beggars belief.”
Facts about Southern Water:
- In July 2024 its Chief Executive was granted a £764,000 pay package which included a £183,000 bonus. This was up from £428,000 the previous year.
- In the same month the company admitted it was not investing enough in its infrastructure.
- It was fined £90million for dumping raw sewage into the sea in 2021.
- According to the Environment Agency, Southern Water was responsible for 13 of the 47 serious pollution incidents across the country in 2023.
- It was also rated as “red” for the number of pollution incidents from sewage in 2023 with the Environment Agency saying it was performing “significantly below target”.