Water companies’ failure to deal with customers’ concerns over environmental performance and water meters has fuelled a steep rise in complaints to the consumer watchdog.

Credit: The Climate Reality Project

The Consumer Council for Water (CCW) saw the number of complaints which had to be escalated to it by household customers in England and Wales rise by almost a third (29%) in 2023-24 – reaching its highest level for nearly a decade. These disputes are the most frustrating and time-consuming for customers, who have already had to exhaust their water company’s two-stage complaints process.

CCW’s annual household customer complaint-handling report shows overall customers had to make a total of 222,956 complaints directly to water companies in England and Wales.

More than half (57%) of these related to issues with billing, including disputes around how much people were being charged, methods of payment and difficulties with the affordability of bills.

Within the 7,977 complaints received by CCW, issues relating to water meters rose by 30% including concerns over how often they were being read and whether they were working properly. There was also a significant rise in complaints to CCW about environmental issues, up by 217% over the last 12 months. These mainly related to spills from storm overflows and wider pollution of rivers and seas.

Download the report