Wednesday 01 February 2017 3:37 pm

Water bills across England and Wales are set to rise in the next year

The tide is rising on average household water and sewerage bills in the 2017-2018 year.

Homes in England and Wales will see their bills rising £6, or two per cent, to an average price of £395.

The increase falls in line with a five-year plan agreed upon by the UK's water and sewerage companies, UK Water said today.

After consultation with customers and industry regulator Ofwat, water companies made plans to deliver a five per cent average drop in real terms in prices between 2015 and 2020. Over the period, they will also invest £44bn in better services, greater resilience and environmental improvements, UK water said.

The industry is working towards three goals: saving 370m litres of water a day by tackling leakage and promoting efficiency, reducing the effect of time interruptions on water supply by 32 per cent, and reducing properties flooded by wastewater from sewers by 33 per cent.

Michael Roberts, Water UK chief executive, said this year details on bills in England and Wales are being published alongside information on how water companies are performing.

"We hope this will both inform the ongoing conversations about priorities between companies and their customers, and provide a signpost to the help available from each water company for those households who genuinely struggle to pay," he said.

Low-income households are being advised by the Consumer Council for Water (CCWater) to take advantage of schemes offered by water companies to help struggling customers pay their bills.

Tony Smith, chief executive of the watchdog CCWater, said water companies have a growing number of schemes available to help customers reduce bills by more than 80 per cent in some cases.

In September, Ofwat called for more competition between water providers to help lower prices, offer better customer services and produce new offers, such as packages of energy, telecoms and water, all sold together.