Water Charges: Social Tariffs
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 8 September 2025 to Question 72871, on Water Charges, what cost-benefit analysis her Department carried out when choosing not to introduce a national social tariff for water bills in the policy paper entitled A new vision for water: white paper published on 20 January 2026.
Answered by Emma Hardy
The Government is working with industry to keep support schemes under review to ensure that vulnerable customers are supported. We are working with water companies to ensure vulnerable customers across the country receive support. This includes improving the guidance for companies to design the best social tariffs for their customers.
We expect all water companies to put appropriate support in place for customers struggling to pay their bills and to proactively engage with their customers to ensure they know what support schemes are available and how to use them. Over the next five years, water companies will have more than doubled the number of customers that will receive help with their bills through social tariffs from 4% in 2025 to 9% in 2030. We expect companies to hold themselves accountable for their commitment to end water poverty by 2030 and will work with the sector to ensure appropriate measures are taken to this end.
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