Customers already knew their water bills rose steeply in April. Now 14.7 million people in England supplied by five companies – Anglian, Northumbrian, South East, Southern and Wessex – will suffer steeper increases. That’s the bad news for them. The vague consolation is that the outcome could have been worse.
Strange as it may look at first glance, none of the five firms got close to what they wanted when they trotted off to the Competition and Markets Authority to complain that Ofwat, the economic regulator, should have whacked up bills even further.
