Household water bills to rise by up to 12% in 2025

Household water bills are set to rise by between £5 and £8 a month next year, Guernsey Water has confirmed.

The annual increase, from 1 January, will see bills for metered customers rise by about 11%, and by about 12% for unmetered customers.

This means household water and wastewater charges combined will be on average £1.65 a day for metered customers, and £2.44 a day for unmetered customers, said the firm.

Steve Langlois, Guernsey Water managing director, said the utility had borne significantly higher costs in the last two years due to inflation.

Increases in the cost of engineering and construction had been particularly acute, Mr Langlois said.

Bill increases had been kept to a minimum, but after several years of financial losses, steps needed be taken to ensure the utility could continue investing in essential services, he said.

He said water infrastructure - including 14 reservoirs, more than 500 km (310 miles) of underground water pipes and two treated water reservoirs - "require continual investment to maintain and renew".

"For reasons that are out of our control, the cost of doing this has increased considerably," he said.

The firm said it had cut costs on wastewater treatment but "despite these savings other cost increases mean we are unable to avoid putting charges up in 2025".

In line with States of Guernsey policy, the cesspit emptying charge will increase from £9.09 per load to £10.47, which covers a third of the cost of providing the service.

The other two thirds of the cost is funded from wastewater charges paid by all customers.

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