Overview

• The provisional redeterminations allow £556 million, or 21% of the £2.7 billion sought, adding an average 3% to bills for customers of Anglian, Northumbrian, South East, Southern and Wessex on top of Ofwat’s earlier increases.
• Indicative impacts versus Ofwat’s baseline are Anglian +1%, Northumbrian +1%, South East +4%, Southern +3% and Wessex +5%, with final bills varying by usage and performance.
• The panel said limited extra funding is needed to meet environmental and drinking‑water legal duties and to reflect higher financing costs, while linking allowances to defined outputs and penalties for underperformance.
• Most additional requests beyond Ofwat’s PR24 package were rejected, preserving the regulator’s framework that already envisages £104 billion of investment and average household bill rises of about 36% by 2030.
• The CMA launched a consultation on the provisional decisions, as wider sector pressures continue with Thames Water keeping its appeal on hold during restructuring talks and public debate over potential reforms.