Water regulator Ofwat has announced that household water bills in England and Wales will increase by an average £31 a year over the next five years. Chris Walters, Senior Director for the Price Review said the rise was necessary to pay for a record level of investment. Report by Etemadil. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00Bill increases are necessary to pay for record levels of investment, £104 billion, the most
00:06in any five-year period since privatisation, and that investment is needed to safeguard
00:11the health of our rivers, our seas and our waterways, to improve the resilience of our
00:14water supplies and to get companies to really raise their game on their day-to-day performance
00:19in areas that matter to customers and to the environment.
00:22Now we know that bill increases are worrying and there is concern around this. Part of
00:27my job is to talk to customers and their representatives and I've heard those concerns
00:32first-hand and that's why our announcements today also include more support for customers
00:37than in any previous price review.
00:40We have scrutinised companies' proposals to take £8 billion of unnecessary cost out
00:46of customers' bills and we've also pared back the returns for investors that companies
00:50were asking for by a further £2 plus billion. Bill increases I know are going to be difficult
00:56for people.