Sussex households to see water bills reduced after Southern Water misses key targets

Ofwat said the water provider was ‘falling short’ on performance measures around leakages, supply and reducing pollution.

Southern Water will now join eleven other water firms who did not meet the industry regulator's targets, which were set in 2019 for a five-year period.

A spokesperson for Southern water said: “Under new leadership since last year, we’ve been clear we need to do better, and in April this year, we set out an ambitious Turnaround Plan, supported by significant new investment from shareholders of £1.6bn since 2021.

“This is allowing us to spend a record £3bn on our network between 2020 and 2025 – the equivalent of £1,500 per household.

"This year, we are already seeing encouraging signs of performance improvement - reducing pollutions and leakage and improving customer service – in line with our plans. We realise that these improvements will take time to feed through into future performance metrics, and we are determined to continue improving.”

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Southern Water will now repay £40 million to customers, the second highest amount having to be payed out by a water company behind Thames Water, who will return more than £101m.

Money is given back to customers by reducing their bills in 2024-25, rather than each bill payer getting a lump sum refund.

It is not yet possible to say how much each customer might see their bill reduced by, as the figures are provisional and will depend on where they live and inflation.

Southern Water provides water for 2.5 million customers and wastewater services to more than 4.7 million customers across Sussex, Kent, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.