Water Bills Explained: Average Costs and How to Save Money

Water is one of those bills most people don’t think much about until it lands. The average UK household pays roughly £400-£450 a year, and unlike energy or broadband, you can’t shop around - your supplier is whoever covers your area. That said, there are still ways to bring the cost down. We’ll walk you through how the billing works and where the opportunities are.

Quick Decision Tree

• Small household or low usage: check metered pricing first.
• Large household or high usage: compare carefully before switching from unmetered.
• Struggling to pay: check social tariffs and WaterSure before arrears build.

How the Billing Works

Your water bill pays for two separate things. The water supply side covers treating water to make it drinkable and pumping it to your property. The sewerage side covers taking your used water away, treating it, and disposing of it safely. You pay for both, even though they’re quite different operations. If you happen to have a private septic tank, you may only pay for the supply side.

Most bills land somewhere between £200-£225 for water supply and £200-£225 for sewerage, though this varies quite a lot by region. Where you live and who supplies you makes a real difference - more on that below.

Metered or Unmetered?

This is the big one, because it determines how your bill is calculated.

Unmetered means your bill is based on your property’s rateable value - an old valuation from 1990 that’s tied to your property’s size, type, and location. You pay the same every year regardless of how much water you actually use. The upside is predictability. The downside is that if you’re a light water user, you’re probably overpaying.

Metered means you pay for what you use, measured in cubic metres (each one is 1,000 litres). You’ll have a standing charge on top, but the bulk of the bill comes from your actual consumption. The average household uses around 140-150 cubic metres a year.

Which one’s cheaper? If there are fewer people in your home than bedrooms, a meter almost certainly saves money. If you’ve got a big family or water the garden a lot, unmetered is probably better value. We’ve written more about this in our water meters guide.

Who Supplies Your Water?

You don’t get a choice, but for reference, the major water and sewerage companies are: Thames Water (London and Thames Valley), Severn Trent (Midlands), United Utilities (North West), Yorkshire Water (Yorkshire), Anglian Water (East of England), Southern Water (South East coast), South West Water (Devon and Cornwall), Northumbrian Water (North East), Welsh Water/Dŵr Cymru (Wales), and Wessex Water (Bristol and Somerset area). Scottish Water covers Scotland and is publicly owned.

In some areas, the company that supplies your clean water and the one handling your sewerage are actually different, which can mean two bills. Your bills will tell you who does what.

Getting a Water Meter

You can request a meter from your supplier and they have to install one for free, provided it’s physically practical at your property. The process is fairly straightforward - you ask, they survey, they install (usually within a few weeks), and you start getting billed on usage.

The important bit: you get a 12-month trial period in England and Wales. If metered billing turns out to cost you more, you can switch back within that first year. After 12 months, the meter’s permanent.

For properties where a meter can’t be fitted (flats with shared supplies, for instance), companies offer assessed charges based on what similar metered homes pay.

What’s on Your Bill

Your bill should show a water supply charge, a sewerage charge, and possibly a surface water drainage charge (for rainwater that runs off your property into the public sewer). If you’re metered, you’ll see a standing charge plus a per-cubic-metre rate. If you’re unmetered, it’s just the rateable value calculation.

Worth checking: if your property doesn’t drain rainwater into the public sewer (maybe you’ve got a soakaway or it all drains into your garden), you might be able to get the surface water drainage charge removed. Ring your supplier and ask.

WaterSure - Capped Bills for Certain Households

WaterSure is worth knowing about if you’re on a meter and your usage is high for reasons you can’t help. To qualify, you need to be receiving certain benefits (Universal Credit, Income Support, JSA, ESA, Pension Credit, Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, or Housing Benefit) and either have three or more children under 19 at home or a medical condition that means you need extra water.

What it does is cap your bill at the average for your area, even if you use more than that. For families with high water needs, this can save a significant amount. You’ll need to reapply each year, but it’s worth the paperwork.

Bringing the Cost Down

If you’re on a meter, the most effective things you can do are: take shorter showers (could save £50-£100 a year), fix any dripping taps (a single drip can waste thousands of litres over a year), run full loads in the washing machine and dishwasher, and fit a water-efficient shower head. Most water companies will send you one for free.

Check for leaks too. If your bill suddenly jumps for no obvious reason, turn everything off and see if the meter’s still moving. If it is, something’s leaking somewhere. Water companies will sometimes adjust your bill if you can show the leak was hidden and you’ve had it fixed.

And if you’re on a low income, it’s really worth checking what support your company offers. Social tariffs can cut bills by 50% or more, and WaterSure can cap them. We’ve covered this in detail in our water bill help guide.

If Something Goes Wrong or You Move

Complaining About Your Bill

If something looks wrong, contact your supplier first and explain the issue. They’ve usually got 10 working days to respond. If that doesn’t resolve it, the Consumer Council for Water (CCW) is the next step - they’re free, independent, and handle around 10,000 complaints a year. Ofwat, the regulator, is the last resort but rarely gets involved in individual billing disputes.

Moving House

Tell your supplier your move date. If you’re on a meter, take a final reading. They’ll send a closing bill for the old place. At the new address, you’ll need to contact whoever supplies that area (it might be a different company) and set up a new account. Check what band your new property falls in too - it might be quite different from what you’re used to.