Water bills in Sunderland to rise by 1.8%

Northumbrian Water customers will pay about £1 per day for their drinking water and sewerage services, which is an increase of 13p a week from last year and works out at a rise of about 1.8%.

However, water charges vary from household to household, depending on factors including water use and size of property.

Meanwhile, the company will continue its multi-million pound investment programme to maintain and improve the quality of drinking water, to protect the environment and provide good service to its 2.7million customers in the North East.

Northumbrian Water will invest about £180million on essential improvements in the year from April 2016 as part of its £900million programme of works from 2015 to 2020.

Work to protect homes from flooding from the water company’s 32,000km sewer network is among its priorities, along with improvements to drinking water quality delivered through its 16,000km of water pipes.

Heidi Mottram, Northumbrian Water’s chief executive officer, said: “Our household customers will continue to pay on average about £1 per day for all their drinking water and sewerage services which represents great value for money.

“We will continue to invest in schemes to provide clean, clear tap water that tastes good and to protect homes from flooding.

“Our ongoing investment programme not only delivers improvements for our customers, but is also helping to provide much-needed work for local companies and secure jobs in the regions we supply.

“We have focussed on our efficiency to keep bills as low as possible, but we are very aware that some people have difficulty managing the family budget and the affordability of our services is always a concern.

“We offer many ways to assist people through our SupportPLUS scheme, and would urge any customers who think they may experience difficulty to get in touch with us as soon as possible.”

Customers facing difficulty in paying their bills can find more information at www.nwl.co.uk/your-home/your-account/Difficulty-paying.aspx and by visiting www.stepchange.org.