To view your latest bill, take a look at MyAccount.
Metered bills
Here’s an explanation of what’s on your metered bill:
- Your Customer Reference number
- The balance from your last bill which takes into account any payments or adjustments received before this bill was sent
- A breakdown of the charges which is detailed on page 2.
- The Government contribution
- The total of charges in this bill period
- The total owed from this bill including any outstanding amount
Page 2 of your bill shows our calculations, your meter serial number and meter readings or estimates.
Unmetered bills
Here’s an explanation of what’s on your unmetered bill:
- Your Customer Reference number
- The balance from your last bill which takes into account any payments or adjustments received before this bill was sent
- A breakdown of the charges which is detailed on the following pages.
- The Government contribution
- The total of charges in this bill period
- The total owed from this bill including any outstanding amount
The next pages of your bill show our calculations based on the rateable value of your property.
You can see here how your bill is calculated.
If you're on a meter
You’ll only pay standing charges if the meter doesn’t record any water.
If you're not on a meter
If there is no furniture in the house and you’re not carrying out any refurbishment work there, you won’t have to pay any charges. If there is, full charges will still apply.
We may make special arrangements if you have furniture in your house, but have gone into hospital for a long period of time. You can contact us to talk to about this.
Yes, but if you’re not on a meter and paying rateable-value-based charges, we offer a 50% renovation allowance. To apply for this, complete our online form on MyAccount or contact us on 0344 346 1010.
We’re sorry to hear about your loss and appreciate that this may be a difficult time for you.
We want to keep things as simple as possible, you can notify us online and to have a look at the bereavement support we offer, or if you prefer, just call our team on 0344 346 1010.
They're available 9am - 6pm Monday to Friday, Saturdays 9am - 12pm
If you need to let us know about any changes, you can contact us by phone, online, or via MyAccount to let us know.
We'll need to know if:
- You’ve got married
- You've legally changed your name
- You're adding or removing a person from your bill account
- You are advising us of a correction to a billing address.
Yes, you can request a refund.
If you're on a meter, and your bill has been calculated based off an actual reading (rather than an estimated one), you can request a refund by contacting us on 0344 346 1010, or online.
If you're moving house and wanting to close an account that's in credit, please remember to provide us with a forwarding address. We'll need to send you your final bill and confirmation of any refund to this address. If we can't refund directly into your bank account, we'll post you a cheque for the right amount.
If we haven't got your forwarding address, the credit will stay on your account until you let us know.
You can see how our bill compares to the industry and what it covers here. We've managed to keep the bill well below inflation rises, but there are reasons specific to the South West for why they remain higher than average.
In our service area we enjoy 850 miles of coastline that hosts about a third of the country’s bathing waters. Bathing waters require higher monitoring and control than other coastal waters, so cost more to manage.
The cost of providing water and wastewater services in the South West is shared by 1.8 million customers (around 3% of the country's population) which is fewer people than in many other water company areas. This again has a knock on affect on the amount each person pays to cover these costs.
The rural nature of the region means we need many more treatment works and thousands of miles of pipes to provide drinking water to everyone and to take wastewater away.
To put this into context – Thames Water can serve nearly 4 million customers in East London from one wastewater treatment plant; to serve our 1.8 million customers, we maintain more than 650 wastewater treatment plants across four counties.
Recognising this, the Government contribute £50 towards each of our customers' bills to help alleviate the cost to households. We also work with the industry's regulator, Ofwat, to find ways of keeping your bills as low as possible.
Following our huge investment into new wastewater treatment works that were needed to clean up the coastline in the early 2000s, customer bills had to increase dramatically to cover the cost.
Due to the massive benefit all the investment had on the region, and the new-found qaulity of the bathing waters that started to attract millions of visitors each year, the Government recognised that it was unfair for our customers to take the brunt financially.
So, in 2011, the Government started to contribute £50 towards each of our customers' bills to help alleviate the costs on households.
We don't offer discounts for single occupiers, but we can recommend you switching to a meter if you haven't already so that you only pay for the water you use.
You can see how our bills are calculated here to further understand how you're charged.
If we can't fit a meter at your property, you'll be offered an assessed charge which is based on the number of people living there.
If you start to, or are already struggling to pay your water bill, there are ways in which we can help. Check our our financial support section or contact us to find out more.