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Water and wastewater charges will increase from next month by just over 2%.
Guernsey Water has confirmed that following the bill freeze in 2019, water and wastewater charges will increase from the start of 2021 to help cover the utility's rising costs and inflation this year of around 2%.
“We are increasing our water and wastewater charges to reflect growing cost pressures on the business," Managing Director Steve Langlois said of the decision.
"Our rates reflect the cost of providing services to our customers as well as the cost of investment in the infrastructure that delivers these services.”
Charges for metered water will rise by 2.02%, from £0.99 per cubic metre to £1.01 per cubic metre, and unmetered increases by 3.57%, from 0.28 to 0.29 per TRP Unit.
Pictured: Guernsey Water invested £4.1m in improving and maintaining its services last year, including completion of the refurbishment of Juas Water Treatment Works, which enabled the decommissioning of Longue Hougue Water Treatment Works. The utility made a loss of £768,00 last year, according to the recently-published annual report for 2019.
The States-owned utility says the increase in the metered rates effectively represents an annual rise of 1.01% (TRP – 1.77%) since 1 January 2019.
Charges for wastewater will change by 2.14%, from £1.87 per cubic metre to £1.91 per cubic metre for metered customers, with wastewater standing charges changing from £24.17 per quarter to £24.77 per quarter. This will result in an overall rise of 2.06% in the combined water and wastewater bill for the average metered customer.
“We work hard to make our business as efficient as possible by managing costs carefully," said Mr Langlois. "This means that, on average, a metered customer pays just £1.23 per day, but we are seeing increases in some costs that are difficult to control, so customers will see a small rise in their overall bill next year."
Pictured top: Guernsey Water Managing Director Steve Langlois.
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