Tunnel project could prompt water bill rises

Thames Water claims that an increase of £1 a week would only bring water bills in line with the national average

AVERAGE water bills in West Berkshire could rise by more than £1 a week by 2018, owing to the costs of the proposed Thames Tunnel sewer project.

However, the utility company responsible for the region's water, Thames Water, claims this would only bring bills in line with the national average.

Thames Water has come under fire for its £3.6 billion sewer project, which could see a tunnel constructed to help prevent 39 million tonnes of sewage entering the River Thames each year from London's Victorian sewer network.

The water company says the project is essential to help prevent an unacceptable problem from becoming progressively worse, but critics of the scheme have hit out at the “£4,000 water bill life sentence” that they claim a 20-year-old living to the current life expectancy would face, describing it as a bombshell to hardworking bill payers.

The leader of Hammersmith and Fulham Council, Stephen Greenhalgh, said: “At a time when the budgets for the police, the armed forces, schools, transport and a whole range of local services are all being squeezed, are we really going to spend £3.6 billion on a gold-plated sewer to improve a river that won an international prize for cleanliness only last year?”

Mr Greenhalgh also called for Thames Water to open their files to public scrutiny and urged MPs to have a proper debate on the plans.

However, Thames Water says it has always been clear that the bills of its 13.8m wastewater customers would rise steadily in line with the costs of the tunnel.

In a statement, the company said: “It is only fair that bill increases are shared across our region.

“Customers outside of London have seen big environmental improvements from our investments in sewage treatment locally, while paying the lowest water bills in the country for most of the past 20 years, as it costs much less to serve the capital's dense population than it does in other areas.”

The company added that regulatory body Ofwat sets limits on water bills in line with the work water companies do and said the body would scrutinise the Thames Tunnel costs to ensure they are kept as low as possible, with a determination due in 2014 or 2015.