Wastewater charges up next year

Wednesday 11 December 2019

Guernsey Water has confirmed that while it won't be increasing our water charges next year our wastewater charges will go up by RPIX, "to reflect an increase in the cost of providing the service".

The utility firm has warned the wastewater charge will go up by 2.19%, from £1.83 per cubic metre to £1.87 for metered customers on 1 January 2020.

Steve Langlois, Guernsey Water’s General Manager, said "cost pressures" have pushed the wastewater charges up.

“We are amending our wastewater charges to reflect growing cost pressures," he said.

"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.” 

Recently, Guernsey Water had given all customers a price freeze, which Mr Langlois said was due to a "positive financial performance".

“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.

Pictured: Wastewater charges cover the cost of flushing your toilet and other water which goes down the drain.