Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the adequacy and transparency of unmetered fixed charges set by water companies, including Severn Trent Water.

The Government is working to make the charging system for water fairer in England. Unmetered charges for households are based on rateable values, which the Valuation Office has not updated since 1990. To provide greater billing fairness to household customers the Government is supporting the water industry to move unmetered customers over to metered charging, which will provide more accurate billing based on a customer’s usage. To maximise the benefits customers will get from metering, the Government is supporting regulators and the water companies to deliver approximately 10.4 million smart meters over 2025-30. This rollout involves all water companies in England, including Severn Trent.