Wastewater charges to increase by RPIX, but water charges will remain the same

Guernsey Water has confirmed that wastewater charges will increase by RPIX next year to reflect an increase in the cost of providing the service; water charges will remain the same.

Steve Langlois, Guernsey Water's general manager, said: "We are amending our wastewater charges to reflect growing cost pressures. Our charges reflect the cost of providing services to our customers as well as reinvestment in the infrastructure that provides these services. Once we have taken our long term financial requirements into account, any surplus that we make is returned to customers in the form of lower bills, which is why we are able to freeze our water charges this year."

Charges for wastewater will increase by 2.19%, from £1.83 per cubic metre to £1.87 per cubic meter for metered customers on 1 January 2020 with wastewater standing charges changing from £23.67 per quarter to £24.17 per quarter, water charges will remain the same. This will result in an overall rise of 1.19% in the average metered customer's combined water and wastewater bill, a rise which is below recent increases in the cost of living.

"In 2019, following positive financial performance in previous years we decided that a return should be made to our customers, with this in mind we froze customers' bills, so this will be our first price rise in two years for water and wastewater customers.

"We work hard to make our business as efficient as possible by managing our costs carefully, but we are seeing increases in some costs that are difficult to control. Although customers will see a small, below RPIX increase in their overall bill next year, our previous bill freeze and no increase in water charges next year is still good news for customers" said Mr Langlois.

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