Coronavirus

Customers who are vulnerable should sign up to our Priority Services Register. It's free to join and if you need a little extra help due to medical, learning, physical disabilities or financial difficulties, we will do all we can to help you.

If you've been financially affected by COVID-19, we want to help. During this difficult time, we are offering extra information and support when you need it, including special tariffs and payment breaks.

If you've been financially affected by COVID-19, we want to help. During this difficult time, we are offering extra information and support when you need it, including special tariffs and payment breaks.

There are alternative ways to pay your bill, with the easiest being setting up a regular Direct Debit using MyAccount. You can also make a payment online using our 'Pay Now' feature or by calling us on 0345 6070 456.

The government has stressed how important it is to frequently wash your hands to prevent the spread of COVID-19.  This might mean you’re using more water than usual.
Washing your hands only requires a relatively small amount of water,  this is unlikely to impact your metered bill.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have reviewed our education programme to ensure that we can continue to deliver water-efficiency and water-cycle assemblies and workshops to local schools. If a visit to the school is not possible, we are also offering the following options:

• Virtual delivery via Microsoft Teams or Zoom
• Pre-recorded delivery with a Q&A session.

We also offer a range of online learning resources that can be completed at home, including our educational quizzes that are suitable for Key Stages 2, 3 and 4.

The safety and wellbeing of our colleagues and customers is our number one priority. We are regularly reviewing the official advice regarding the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and advising our colleagues to follow the necessary NHS hygiene measures.

Yes. We are continuing to clean and disinfect our water in the same way we normally would, using a mix of chlorine and/or Ultra-Violet technology. These treatments kill bacteria and viruses, such as COVID-19. We are also carrying out our usual water-sampling activities at our treatment works and reservoirs to make sure drinking water is safe for our customers.

The World Health Organisation has also confirmed that there is no evidence Coronavirus (COVID-19) can survive in disinfected drinking water. Frequent and proper hand washing is one of the most important prevention measures for COVID-19.

If you have been away from your property for an extended period of time, there is an increased risk of water settling in your pipes, which could lead to the presence of Legionella. Although we have continued to treat our water to ensure that our customers receive a high-quality and safe supply of drinking water, we recommend that the following precautions are taken when returning to your property for the first time:

• Run all of your taps until the water runs clear and is cool to touch
• Where water is supplied from storage tanks, these should be emptied and refilled with water direct from your incoming supply, before the taps are flushed
• To minimise aerosol generation, remove any shower heads before flushing your system
• Internal filters or water filters, such as those in refrigerators, should be checked to ensure they are working correctly
• If any plumbing work is required, ensure a plumber from the Watersafe scheme is used.

For further guidance, please refer to Water UK’s advice.

To ensure the safety of our customers and colleagues, we have cancelled all non-essential internal visits to customer properties.  
We will contact all customers again when we are able to re-book your appointment. 

We're sorry that we have cancelled all water meter installations which need to be installed internally. (External installations can usually go ahead.)

We will be in touch to rearrange your appointment, as and when it’s safe to do so.

During the COVID-19 outbreak, we will only be taking meter readings from water meters where it is safe for us to do so. Therefore, we will not be reading any internal meters or meters that are attached to customers' properties. 

If we are unable to read your meter, an estimated reading will be used to calculate your next water bill. Where possible, we will ask you to provide us with a meter reading. We appreciate that for some customers this is not possible.

No, we are encouraging all of our colleagues and customers to follow the latest hygiene advice regarding COVID-19.

No, as the amount of money collected from customers’ bills is set by our market regulator, Ofwat, over a five-year period. Any additional revenue received this year, above the amount we are allowed to collect, is passed back to customers in the years that follow, through lower charges.

We are also collecting less revenue from business customers as many have closed or scaled back their operations and so are not using as much water. The approach is set up to be fair to both customers and us, allowing us to make the investments needed to run the services for customers over the five-year period.

Delivering a secure and reliable water supply, whilst protecting our colleagues and customers, is our main priority. Our water supply network is currently operating as normal, and we are taking every precaution to protect our frontline colleagues who manage our network on a daily basis.

We will always get your water back on as quickly as possible and most supplies are restored in less than four hours.  If an interruption is likely to last for more than four hours in peak times, we will always try to provide an emergency supply - normally from standpipes, water bowsers or tankers.

If you have an urgent need for water due to a medical condition, please make sure you have signed up for our Priority Services Register. In the event of a supply interruption, we can prioritise you and offer extra support.

Our contact centre is currently operating as normal Monday to Friday, but on Saturdays we will be only be able to help with emergency supply issues.

We are also available online via social media (Facebook, Messenger or Twitter). 

You can manage your account online or by using our mobile app.  If you're moving home, want to submit a meter reading, need extra help with your bill or have a problem with your water supply, we have all the help you need.