Regulator Ofwat rules that bills in England and Wales will increase by an average of £31 per year from 2025 to 2030

• Thames Water to get green light to hike bills by more than a third by 2030

Today is a “significant moment” for the water industry, says David Black, Ofwat chief executive.

Black explains that water companies must also clean up their act, as well as the H2O supply:

It provides water companies with an opportunity to regain customers’ trust by using this £104bn upgrade to turn around their environmental record and improve services to customers.

“Water companies now need to rise to this challenge, customers will rightly expect them to show they can deliver significant improvement over time to justify the increase in bills. Alongside the step up in investment, we need to see a transformation in companies’ culture and performance. We will monitor and hold companies to account on their investment programmes and improvements.

“We recognise it is a difficult time for many, and we are acutely aware of the impact that bill increases will have for some customers. That is why it is vital that companies are stepping up their support for customers who struggle to pay.

“We have robustly examined all funding requests to make sure they provide value for money and deliver real improvements, while ensuring the sector can attract the levels of investment it needs to meet environmental requirements.

This has seen us remove £8bn of unjustified costs compared with companies most recent requests. In addition, our approach to setting a rate of return has saved customers £2.8bn.”

£12bn on 2,884 projects reducing spills from storm overflows;

£6 billion of upgrades to combat nutrient pollution for around 1,000 sites and catchments;

£3.3bn on nature-based solutions and increasing biodiversity;

£2bn of development funding to unlock £50bn investment for 30 major projects designed to secure water supplies including nine new reservoirs and nine large-scale water transfer schemes;

£456m of extra funding on day-to-day allowances to increase the rate at which water mains are replaced, with 8,445km set to be improved over the next five years.