Water companies will be forced to pay out millions of pounds to customers in the form of lower bills over 2024 and 2025.
The firms will be forced to pay out a net total of £70million to consumers after falling short of performance targets, the industry regular Ofwat has confirmed.
The fines for underperforming suppliers have been issued to “most” companies, after the firms failed to meet key targets on reducing pollution, leakages and supply interruptions, Ofwat found.
Ofwat judges the performance of water companies in England and Wales annually against the “stretching” targets they set in 2019 for a five-year period until 2025.
Ofwat said 12 water companies will return around £193million to customers
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Thames Water will need to pay out the most to its 15 million customers base, of nearly £74million.
The struggling firm faced crisis talks earlier this year over its £14billion debt, but it managed to secure an emergency funding package from shareholders.
The watchdog last month said Britain’s biggest water supplier has “significant issues to address” over its financial strength.
Anglian Water will give customers more than £27million off their bills and Dwr Cymru about £24million.
However, some companies will be allowed to charge customers more after improving their performances, Ofwat said.
Severn Trent Water will be allowed to add £89million to the bills of its 4.6 million customers from next year.
United Utilities can charge more than £25million.
Ofwat said 12 firms will need to return around £193million to customers.
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some companies will be allowed to charge customers more after improving their performances, Ofwat said
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This is partially offset by five firms charging about £123million more, resulting in a net total of £70million being paid out.
Ofwat had provisionally said in September that firms would return a net total of £114million, but the review process has now been completed.
An Anglian Water spokesperson said: "As part of the water industry regulatory framework, Ofwat measures company performance across many different areas. This is reflected in outperformance or underperformance payments depending on individual company performance against specific measures.
"For 2022/23, the balance of our performance across all these areas meant that we incur an underperformance payment of £27million, which will ultimately be reflected in customer bills in for 2024-25."
GB News has contacted Thames Water and Dwr Cymru asking for comment.