Every water company's actual rates, in one place.
You cannot switch water company, so nobody has ever had a commercial reason to collect this. Each company publishes its rates in its own charges scheme, a PDF of thirty to sixty pages, and the numbers are not comparable at a glance because they are not built the same way. Here are 21 companies and charging regions for 2026/27, with the arithmetic done for you.
Work out your own bill
Nothing you type here leaves your browser. There is no form to submit and nothing is recorded.
Your bill shows this. If you do not have it to hand, allow about 45 cubic metres a person a year, which is 122 litres a day, the metered average for April 2024 to March 2025. Discover Water →
A 1973 valuation printed on your bill. It is not your council tax band and it is not what your home is worth.
Companies that do your water and your sewerage
5 of them. The last column is one year at 100 cubic metres on the published rates, put there so the companies can be compared at all. It is not an average bill and it is not your bill.
Scroll sideways to see every column
| Company | Water per m3 | Water standing | Sewerage per m3 | Sewerage standing | Unmetered per £ RV | A year at 100 m3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South West Water | £3.0158 | £64.72 | £4.6858 | £90.61 | £3.0094 | £1,037.76 |
| United Utilities | £3.235 | £23.66 | £2.275 | £2.08 | £1.982 | £728.59 |
| Thames Water | £2.7346 | £66.87 | £1.4721 | £128.13 | not published | £690.83 |
| Yorkshire Water | £2.1838 | £54.10 | £2.7053 | £33.85 | £2.5044 | £662.33 |
| Northumbrian Water | £1.6169 | £61.16 | £1.6121 | £123.75 | £0.8905 | £507.81 |
Companies that do your water only
16 of them. Your sewerage is billed by somebody else on top, so the figures here are not your whole bill. Several of these companies collect the other company's sewerage charge for them, which is why one bill can arrive from a water only supplier.
Scroll sideways to see every column
| Company | Water per m3 | Water standing | Unmetered per £ RV | A year at 100 m3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| South East Water, Sussex | £3.01 | £50.20 | £2.94 | £351.20 |
| South East Water, Mid Kent | £3.01 | £50.20 | £2.44 | £351.20 |
| South East Water, West Kent | £3.01 | £50.20 | £2.75 | £351.20 |
| Affinity Water, East | £2.47 | £36.36 | £1.7823 | £283.36 |
| Affinity Water, Southeast | £2.47 | £36.36 | £1.7823 | £283.36 |
| South East Water, Mid Southern | £2.28 | £50.20 | £1.77 | £278.20 |
| Essex and Suffolk Water | £2.067 | £63.22 | £1.4225 | £269.92 |
| Bristol Water | £1.8795 | £69.23 | £1.7441 | £257.18 |
| South Staffs Water | £1.7634 | £60.01 | £1.2687 | £236.35 |
| SES Water, Southern | £1.811 | £32.49 | £1.1914 | £213.59 |
| Affinity Water, Central | £1.7463 | £36.36 | £1.3342 | £210.99 |
| Cambridge Water | £1.4373 | £60.01 | £0.9674 | £203.74 |
| Bournemouth Water | £1.5511 | £35.00 | £1.0041 | £190.11 |
| SES Water, Northern 1 | £1.4678 | £32.49 | not published | £179.27 |
| SES Water, Northern 2 | £1.4678 | £32.49 | £0.7744 | £179.27 |
| Portsmouth Water | £1.1783 | £42.41 | £0.6511 | £160.24 |
Scotland
There is no separate water bill in Scotland. Charges are collected with council tax by your council and banded on your council tax band. The average is £532.
Scroll sideways to see every column
| Council tax band | Water | Waste water | Total a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Band A | £201.30 | £233.58 | £434.88 |
| Band B | £234.85 | £272.51 | £507.36 |
| Band C | £268.40 | £311.44 | £579.84 |
| Band D | £301.95 | £350.37 | £652.32 |
| Band E | £369.05 | £428.23 | £797.28 |
| Band F | £436.15 | £506.09 | £942.24 |
| Band G | £503.25 | £583.95 | £1,087.20 |
| Band H | £603.90 | £700.74 | £1,304.64 |
Households getting Council Tax Reduction can take up to 35 per cent off the water charge through the Water Charges Reduction Scheme. Scottish Water also publishes metered household rates, which work in two blocks: the first 25 cubic metres of water cost £3.5611 and the rest £1.2903.
Northern Ireland
Households pay nothing
Households in Northern Ireland pay nothing for water or sewerage. Domestic charges have been deferred since 2007. NI Water is paid a subsidy in lieu of domestic charges by the Department for Infrastructure, alongside what it charges businesses, road drainage charges and borrowing.
NI Water's own charges announcement for 2026/27 confirms the deferment continues. A small number of metered households can still be billed for use above the domestic allowance.
NI Water →Where this comes from, and where it could be wrong
Every figure was read from the company's own charging document, twice, by two readers working separately and without sight of each other's answer. Only figures both readers returned identically are here. Where they differed we say so and print nothing.
Their own websites refuse automated requests, or they have not published a 2026/27 scheme we can find. We name them and link the document rather than showing last year's rates as this year's.
Between Portsmouth Water at £160 and South West Water at £1,038, both at 100 cubic metres on the published rates. Where you live is the whole of it. You cannot switch.
Four ways this page could mislead you
The rates are not built the same way. Some companies put surface water drainage inside the sewerage standing charge, some bill it separately, and some do neither and vary the standing charge instead. A company with a low rate per cubic metre can easily cost more once the fixed charges land. That is why the comparable column is a whole year rather than a rate.
The 100 cubic metre column is a yardstick, not a bill. It is one round number applied to everyone so the companies can be lined up. Your own use is the number that matters and it goes in the calculator above.
Charging areas are not postcodes. Several companies charge differently in different parts of their own area and point to a map rather than describing the boundary. Where that happens we list every area and say we cannot tell you which one you are in.
These are the standard rates. Social tariffs, WaterSure, leak allowances and single occupier discounts all sit on top and can cut a bill by anything from 20 to 99 per cent. Those are on the help with bills page.
The companies we could not read
- Anglian Water water and sewerage
The charges scheme refuses automated requests. Anglian does publish a rates table as an ordinary page, but it shows two sets of figures with no year on either. We matched them against separately labelled documents and they are 2025/26 and 2024/25, so the current year is not there at all. We will not publish last year's rates as this year's.
The document itself → - Southern Water water and sewerage
The charges scheme refuses automated requests, for both this year and last. Southern's own how we calculate your bill page is still on 2024/25 rates, and its 2026/27 announcement gives percentages only, no cash figures. Southern is one of the few companies that bills highway drainage as a separate line, so its rates are not guessable from anybody else's.
The document itself → - Dwr Cymru Welsh Water water and sewerage
Every address on the Welsh Water site refuses automated requests, including its robots file, which points to a site wide block rather than a problem with one document. The Welsh language site returns an empty page, and neither Ofwat nor the Consumer Council for Water reproduces Welsh Water's unit rates.
The document itself → - Wessex Water water and sewerage
The 2026/27 charges scheme refuses automated requests, as does the assessed charges page. Wessex does publish 2025/26 rates openly and labels the year properly, which is more than most, but last year's rates are not this year's.
The document itself → - Severn Trent Water water and sewerage
The charges page names the 2026/27 year correctly but prints no rates at all, only an average bill. The rate tables are published solely as PDFs, and every address under that folder refuses automated requests. Severn Trent's charges library builds its links in the browser, so the file name is not in the page.
The document itself → - Hafren Dyfrdwy water and sewerage
The charges page names the 2026/27 year correctly but prints no rates at all, only an average bill. The rate tables are published solely as PDFs, and every address under that folder refuses automated requests. Hafren Dyfrdwy is owned by Severn Trent and has the same problem.
The document itself →
What each company's scheme says, in its own terms
The oddities, the things that are easy to read wrongly, and the one figure we would most like somebody to challenge.
Thames Waterwater and sewerage, read 2 times
- Thames does not publish one rate in the pound of rateable value. It sets seven charging areas, water from 135.07p to 247.58p per £ of rateable value and wastewater from 63.07p to 138.10p. We do not show a single figure because there is not one.
- Volumetric charges are printed in pence per cubic metre in the scheme, 273.46p for water and 147.21p for wastewater. They are shown here in pounds.
- Highway drainage is not billed separately. It sits inside the wastewater fixed charge.
- Assessed customers also pay fixed charges of £65.76 for water and £126.69 for wastewater on top of the banded amount above.
- The £75.16 figure is the charge for a property that receives surface water drainage only. A household that drains no surface water to the sewer can instead claim a £47.70 reduction.
United Utilitieswater and sewerage, read 2 times
- The measured wastewater standing charge of £2.08 a year is an unusually small number for that field. Two independent readings of the scheme, one of them quoting the table row, returned it identically, and the company's own charges pages agree. We publish it as printed but it is the one figure on this page we would most like a reader to challenge.
- Surface water drainage and highway drainage are separate annual charges here, so a typical household adds £105.35 and £46.50 to the metered figures above.
- The unmetered sewerage rate of £2.932 per £ of rateable value is the total of three published parts, foul £1.830, surface water £0.753 and highway drainage £0.349. They sum exactly.
- There is no separate unmetered sewerage standing charge. The scheme puts it inside the £119.98 water standing charge.
Yorkshire Waterwater and sewerage, read 2 times
- Charges are printed in pence in the scheme and shown here in pounds.
- Highway drainage is charged by the cubic metre for metered customers, 27.08p per cubic metre, so it does not appear as an annual figure. For unmetered customers it is 29.30p per £ of rateable value. The £3.2199 unmetered sewerage rate already includes it.
- Surface water drainage of £85.47 a year is a standing charge on both the metered and the unmetered tariff.
- These are the Yorkshire Water area figures. The York Waterworks area has its own lower rates, 123.70p per cubic metre and a £78.39 standing charge.
Northumbrian Waterwater and sewerage, read 3 times
- Northumbrian does not publish a standalone surface water drainage charge. It publishes two sewerage standing charges instead, £123.75 where foul and surface water drainage both apply and £45.05 where the property drains no surface water to the public sewer.
- The foul only alternatives are an unmetered sewerage standing charge of £101.94, a standard assessed sewerage charge of £233.20 and a single occupier assessed sewerage charge of £143.80.
- The WaterSure cap for 2026/27 is £212.83 for water and £259.11 for sewerage.
South West Waterwater and sewerage, read 2 times
- These are the dual service figures, for a household taking both water and sewerage from South West Water. A customer taking only one of the two services pays more. The single service water standing charge is £90.93 and the single service sewerage standing charge is £121.34 with surface water or £88.08 without.
- The sewerage figures shown are the rates for a property that does drain surface water to the sewer, which is the ordinary case. The foul only rates are given alongside.
- Unmetered sewerage standing charges are banded by rateable value. The figures shown are for a property up to £50 rateable value. Above £50 it is £223.00 with surface water or £189.74 without.
- Unmetered sewerage without surface water is £4.7300 per £ of rateable value.
- Highway drainage is not a separate line. Section 6.17 puts it inside the variable sewerage charges.
- South West Water does not use the words standard and single occupier. It publishes occupancy bands, shown above as printed.
Essex and Suffolk Waterwater only, read 2 times
- Essex and Suffolk is a separately charged region of Northumbrian Water, and its rates are higher than the Northumbrian region's.
- The WaterSure cap for 2026/27 is £304.02.
Bournemouth Waterwater only, read 2 times
- Whether the £35.00 standing charge is added to the assessed band amounts or already inside them is not clear from the scheme. Two readings differed on this point, so we do not say either way.
- Bournemouth Water is a separately charged region of South West Water Limited, not a separate company. Its own about us page says it is part of South West Water Limited, and the Drinking Water Inspectorate lists the regulated body as South West and Bournemouth Water Ltd.
- The metered and the unmetered standing charge are both £35.00.
Bristol Waterwater only, read 2 times
- Bristol Water is no longer a separate licensed water company. Ofwat terminated the Bristol Water licence on 1 February 2023 and varied the South West Water licence to cover the area, after Pennon bought the business. The revised licence keeps separate price controls, and therefore separate charges, for the Bristol Water area.
- The assessed charge is built from bedrooms, £69.23 plus £103.37 for the first bedroom plus £70.48 for each further one. Where a single person lives there, the further bedrooms are not charged.
- A fixed annual fee of £356.82 applies where a property cannot be given a notional rateable value.
- A caravan used as a main residence is charged at £1.3081 per £ of rateable value.
Portsmouth Waterwater only, read 2 times
- Portsmouth prints its charges in pence, 117.83p per cubic metre and 65.11p per £ of rateable value. They are shown here in pounds.
- The WaterSure cap is £162.82 and the social tariff is £94.00.
- Portsmouth Water is the cheapest water supply in England and Wales on the published rates.
South Staffs Waterwater only, read 2 times
- There is no unmetered standing charge here. The scheme says so in terms. A minimum annual charge of £123.52 applies instead.
- South Staffs bills Severn Trent's sewerage charges on Severn Trent's behalf. Those amounts appear on your bill but they are not South Staffs charges.
- A household swimming pool under 10,000 litres is £141.16 a year.
Cambridge Waterwater only, read 2 times
- Cambridge Water is the separately charged Cambridge region of South Staffs Water plc. Its rates are lower than the South Staffs region's.
- Unlike South Staffs, Cambridge does have an unmetered standing charge and does not publish a minimum annual charge.
- A garden meter has its own standing charge, £15.67 at 15mm, £31.32 at 20mm and £46.78 at 25mm.
- A dwelling with only one tap is £93.37 a year.
Affinity Water, Centralwater only, read 2 times
- The rateable value rate is printed for the Colne, Lee, Rickmansworth and North Surrey areas, all four at the same figure.
- The WaterSure cap in this region is £240.00. The LIFT social tariff caps at £160.80 with a 40 per cent discount or £108.00 with a 60 per cent discount.
- An unmetered swimming pool, sprinkler or garden pond is £129.20 and a leisure pool or hot tub is £45.40.
Affinity Water, Eastwater only, read 2 times
- The rateable value rate is printed for the Tendring area.
- The WaterSure cap in this region is £262.80. The LIFT social tariff caps at £160.80 with a 40 per cent discount or £108.00 with a 60 per cent discount.
- An unmetered hosepipe is £66.70.
- The East and Southeast regions print the same volumetric rate and the same rateable value rate. That is what the scheme says, checked on a reading of its own.
Affinity Water, Southeastwater only, read 2 times
- The rateable value rate is printed for the Folkestone and Dover area.
- The WaterSure cap in this region is £292.80. The LIFT social tariff caps at £160.80 with a 40 per cent discount or £108.00 with a 60 per cent discount.
- An unmetered sprinkler is £129.20 and an unmetered tap is £34.60.
SES Water, Southernwater only, read 2 times
- SES Water sets three charging areas inside the Sutton and East Surrey supply area. The scheme points to a map rather than describing the boundaries, so we cannot tell you which one you are in.
- The WaterSure tariff is £249.53 a year and Water Support takes £12.02 off.
SES Water, Northern 1water only, read 2 times
- SES Water sets three charging areas inside the Sutton and East Surrey supply area. The scheme points to a map rather than describing the boundaries, so we cannot tell you which one you are in.
- The WaterSure tariff is £249.53 a year and Water Support takes £12.02 off.
- The unmetered charge here is a licence fee of £271.73 a year, not a standing charge with a rateable value rate on top. The rateable value cells for this area are empty in the scheme.
- A second SES document swaps the two Northern areas around. We have followed the Household Charges Scheme, which is the charging document, and two readings of it agree.
SES Water, Northern 2water only, read 2 times
- SES Water sets three charging areas inside the Sutton and East Surrey supply area. The scheme points to a map rather than describing the boundaries, so we cannot tell you which one you are in.
- The WaterSure tariff is £249.53 a year and Water Support takes £12.02 off.
- A second SES document swaps the two Northern areas around. We have followed the Household Charges Scheme, which is the charging document, and two readings of it agree.
South East Water, Sussexwater only, read 2 times
- South East Water's own charges scheme sits on a part of its site that blocks automated reading, so these figures come from the company's own tariff page instead, which publishes the same 2026-27 tables.
South East Water, Mid Kentwater only, read 2 times
- South East Water's own charges scheme sits on a part of its site that blocks automated reading, so these figures come from the company's own tariff page instead, which publishes the same 2026-27 tables.
- Mid Kent is the only area with a different unmetered standing charge, £101.40 rather than £46.28.
South East Water, West Kentwater only, read 2 times
- South East Water's own charges scheme sits on a part of its site that blocks automated reading, so these figures come from the company's own tariff page instead, which publishes the same 2026-27 tables.
South East Water, Mid Southernwater only, read 2 times
- South East Water's own charges scheme sits on a part of its site that blocks automated reading, so these figures come from the company's own tariff page instead, which publishes the same 2026-27 tables.
- Mid Southern is the only area with a different volumetric rate and its own assessed scale. It is lower in every band except six or more bedrooms, where it is higher. That is what the page prints.
30 price changes logged. Every one had a date you could have known in advance.
Tell us which bills you care about and we will email you when one of them changes, with the figure, the date it starts and a link to the regulator that set it. Free, no account, one click to stop.
Email alerts are not running yet. We would rather say that than take your address and send you nothing. Until they are, the change log carries every dated change the day we find it, and you can bookmark it or follow it in a reader.