Water bills to rise to pay for £10bn sewerage upgrades

Water companies are to invest £10 billion into the biggest modernisation of England’s sewers “since the Victorian era”. Water UK - the body representing Britain’s water industry - says company shareholders will make the investment but customers will eventually repay all of that money through gradual rises in their bills over the next 50 to 100 years. The trade body also apologised on behalf of England’s water companies for sewage discharged into rivers and coastal areas - a problem which has been happening for years. According to the Environment Agency, there were 301,091 sewage spills in 2022 in England, an average of 824 a day.