Campaign update: 2025

Developments since our launch in May 2023...

Since the launch of Boycott Water Bills our site has had over 30,000 unique visitors and there are boycott actions in all 11 companies providing wastewater services in England and Wales.
In September 2023, we sent an Open Letter to the then Environment Secretary, Therese Coffey, asserting that the complaints process for water customers is not fit for purpose.
Following the huge increase in boycott actions, that process has become even more of a “sham” as the length of time given for consideration of complaints has been shortened. This allows companies to move to debt recovery action quicker.
In spite of this, many payment boycotters are still resisting payment and remain firm against the threat of court action.
One of our original boycotters in Whitstable was recently featured in The Times has having entered her 4th year of withholding payment and aims to counter claim against Southern Water if the company pursues court action.
However, many will not be able to risk such court action and if you're now coming to the end of the complaints process but still want to make a stand, please note points 7 and 9 of : HOW DOES IT WORK:

7. At the end of the process, if you feel obligated to pay, you can pay what you owe and then start your boycott all over again. If at any time during the process you are offered, or negotiate a discount, feel free to take it. Some boycotters have been offered 50%, and as much as 100%, discounts.

8. For those who cannot withhold payments, another important option is to CANCEL YOUR DIRECT DEBIT with your water company, ask for twice yearly bills, which you can pay by card over the phone - or by cheque in the post - as late as possible. Explainer below on how Direct Debits support the unsustainable debt mountain accrued by water companies.

Finally, always consult our BE AWARE section on the Home page for possible repercussion for non-payment of water bills, as well as our NEWS section for press updates about legal challenges from payment boycotters and other water campaigners.

Explainer: Water Companies, Debt & Direct Debits

Water companies charge customers on a system called the Regulated Asset Base, which creates incentives for companies to acquire debt. The cost of the interest on that debt is passed straight through to the consumer’s bill.

It is currently estimated that in the 35 years since privatization, the cost of servicing that debt now represents 28% of every bill paid. In another 35 years servicing debt will represent the lion’s share of charges on our bills.

This is unsustainable.

For those who wish to take a first step towards the boycott action, the most effective way to do this is to cancel your direct debits and demand your water company return any monies held on surplus.

CANCELLING our DIRECT DEBITS is SIMPLE, LEGAL and RISK FREE.

While there are substantial financial and legal protections for the water industry, accountability to us, their customers, has been eroded.

Water companies in England and Wales are shielded legally by the Water Industry Act 1991, which protects the companies from the consequences of environmental harm.

The act makes it a statutory duty for consumers to pay bills – much like council tax – while ensuring companies cannot be privately prosecuted for the pollution they cause.

Only government bodies can hold water companies to account: on environmental compliance, this is the Environment Agency, and financially, it is OFWAT.

However, the Environment Agency has failed to monitor and hold water companies to account. Meanwhile, each five-year business plan by water companies has been implemented with the full approval of OFWAT.

Now, as noted by the Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee in a letter to the Chief Executive of OFWAT on 21 February 2024, OFWAT is incapable of using its full powers against water companies without risking a failure of that business, precisely because of their indebtedness.

Professor Richard Murphy, of the Corporate Accountability Network and Sheffield University, notes that all water companies are now ‘environmentally insolvent’ as they do not have the £260bn needed to fix the sewage crisis.

In England and Wales we were asked 35 years ago to accept water as a privatized monopoly on the basis that the industry is regulated.

It is clear that regulation has failed.

In the place of such failure, we insist on accountability to protect the consumer and the environment.

Water companies have no other revenue apart from that charged to their customers, for whom there is a statutory requirement only that they pay their bills twice a year. There is no requirement to pay by direct debit.

Therefore, we are entitled to cancel our direct debits, and demand that any monies held on surplus are immediately returned and that the water companies bill us twice a year accordingly.

We are no longer prepared to be treated as cash cows by the water companies.

We are no longer prepared to see our seas, rivers and natural resources polluted with impunity.