Southern Water customers will experience the biggest rise in the cost of bills of all eleven water and wastewater companies – a 53% hike. The company had sought an increase of 83%.
Customers of Wessex Water will have the lowest, 21%, bill rise.
The 16 million customers of the UK’s biggest water company Thames Water will see bills become 35% more expensive, below the 53% increase requested by the utility.
By 2030 a typical annual bill will cost £588.
Paying the most every year in five years’ time will be Dwr Cymru customers, with an average annual bill of £645.
Bills are going up as the utilities face a range of problems – including higher borrowing costs on large levels of debt, creaking infrastructure and record sewage outflows into waterways.
Ofwat has now agreed to investment plans by the water companies. Funding this investment is another reason bills have been allowed to rise.
The regulator has approved £104bn in funding, above the £85bn agreed with firms in Ofwat’s draft determination but just below the £108bn the companies wanted.
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Water companies to increase bills
Higher bills will not solve the financial woes at some of the utilities, including Thames Water, which this week won court approval to pursue the next phase in securing a £3bn emergency loan.
If approval had not been granted Thames Water told the High Court it would run out of cash by 24 March and would likely be pushed into a government-backed special administration regime.
Ofwat chief executive David Black said: “We recognise it is a difficult time for many, and we are acutely aware of the impact that bill increases will have for some customers. That is why it is vital that companies are stepping up their support for customers who struggle to pay.
“We have robustly examined all funding requests to make sure they provide value for money and deliver real improvements while ensuring the sector can attract the levels of investment it needs to meet environmental requirements.”
A representative for the water industry body Water UK said: “This will be the largest amount of money ever spent on the natural environment and will help to support economic growth, build more homes, secure our water supplies and end sewage entering our rivers and seas.
“We understand increasing bills is never welcome. To protect vulnerable customers, companies will triple the number of households receiving support with their bills to three million over the next five years.”
The Environment Secretary Steve Reed said: “The public are right to be angry after they have been left to pay the price of Conservative failure.
“This Labour government will ringfence money earmarked for investment so it can never be diverted for bonuses and shareholder payouts. We will clean up our rivers, lakes and seas for good.”
As a ban on the sale of disposable vapes comes into force on Sunday, a doctor who set up the first-ever clinic to help children stop vaping has said she has seen patients so addicted they couldn’t sleep through the night without them.
Professor Rachel Isba established the clinic at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool in January and has now seen several patients as young as 11 years old who are nicotine dependent.
“Some of the young people vape before they get out of bed. They are sleeping with them under their pillow,” she told Sky News.
Image: Professor Rachel Isba set up the first-ever stop vaping clinic for children
“I’m hearing stories of some children waking up at three o’clock in the morning, thinking they can’t sleep, thinking the vape will help them get back to sleep. Whereas, actually, that’s the complete opposite of how nicotine works.”
Ms Isba said most of her patients use disposable vapes, and while some young people may use the chance to give up, others will simply move to refillable devices after the ban.
“To me, vaping feels quite a lot like the beginning of smoking. I’m not surprised, but disappointed on behalf of the children that history has repeated itself.”
A government ban on single-use vapes comes into effect from Sunday, prohibiting the sale of disposable vaping products across the UK, both online and in-store, whether or not they contain nicotine.
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The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said usage among young vapers remained too high, and the ban would “put an end to their alarming rise in school playgrounds and the avalanche of rubbish flooding the nation’s streets”.
Image: Pic: PA
Circular economy minister Mary Creagh said: “For too long, single-use vapes have blighted our streets as litter and hooked our children on nicotine. That ends today. The government calls time on these nasty devices.”
At nearby Shrewsbury House Youth Club in Everton, a group of 11 and 12-year-old girls said vape addiction is already rife among their friends.
Yasmin Dumbell said: “Every day we go out, and at least someone has a vape. I know people who started in year five. It’s constantly in their hand.”
Image: Yasmin Dumbell says she knows students who started vaping in year five
Her friend Una Quayle said metal detectors were installed at her school to try to stop pupils bringing in vapes, and they are having special assemblies about the dangers of the devices.
But, she said, students “find ways to get around the scanners though – they hide them in their shorts and go to the bathroom and do it”.
Image: Una Quayle says metal detectors installed at her school won’t stop students using vapes
The girls said the ban on disposables is unlikely to make a difference for their friends who are already addicted.
According to Una, they’ll “find a way to get nicotine into their system”.
As well as trying to address the rise in young people vaping, the government hopes banning single-use vapes will reduce some of the environmental impact the devices have.
Although all vapes can be recycled, only a tiny proportion are – with around eight million a week ending up in the bin or on the floor.
Pulled apart by hand
Even those that are recycled have to be pulled apart by hand, as there is currently no way to automate the process.
Scott Butler, executive director of Material Focus, a recycling non-profit group, said vapes were “some of the most environmentally wasteful, damaging, dangerous consumer products ever sold”.
His organisation worries that with new, legal models being designed to almost exactly mimic disposables in look and feel – and being sold for a similar price – people will just keep throwing them away.
He said the behaviour “is too ingrained. The general public have been told ‘vapes are disposable’. They’ve even been marketed this way. But they never were disposable”.
A ban on disposable vapes comes into force on Sunday, with a warning issued about the “life-threatening dangers” of stockpiling.
From Sunday it will be illegal for any business to sell or supply, or have in their possession for sale, all single-use or disposable vapes.
Online nicotine retailer Haypp said 82% of the 369 customers they surveyed plan to bulk purchase the vapes before they are no longer available.
But the vapes contain lithium batteries and could catch fire if not stored correctly.
Image: A sign for customers at a Tesco store in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire. Pic: PA
While more than a third (34%) of people surveyed by Haypp said they would consider buying an illegal vape after the ban, the overall number of people using disposable products has fallen from 30% to to 24% of vapers, according to Action on Smoking and Health.
Shops selling vapes are required to offer a “take back” service, where they accept vapes and vape parts that customers return for recycling – including single use products.
The Local Government Association (LGA) led the call for a ban two years ago, due to environmental and wellbeing concerns, and is warning people not to stockpile.
Cllr David Fothergill, chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, said: “Failing to store disposable vapes correctly could cost lives, given the significant fire risk they pose.”
How disposable vapes catch fire – or even explode
Figures obtained by the Electric Tobacconist, via Freedom of Information requests, found an increase in vape related fires – from 89 in 2020 to 399 in 2024.
Many disposable vapes use cheap, or even unregulated lithium-ion batteries, to keep the costs down. These batteries often lack proper safety features, like thermal cut offs, making them more prone to overheating and catching fire.
If the battery is damaged, or overheats in any way it can cause thermal runaway – a chain reaction where the battery’s temperature rapidly increases, causing it to overheat uncontrollably.
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2019: Vape product starts fire on US passenger plane
Then, once these fires start start, they are very hard to stop. Water alone can make things worse if the battery is still generating heat, so they require specialised fire suppressants to put them out.
Batteries can then re-ignite hours, or even days later, making them a persistent hazard.
Disposable vapes are a hazard for waste and litter collection and cause fires in bin lorries, even though customers have been warned not to throw them away in household waste. They are almost impossible to recycle because they are designed as one unit so the batteries cannot be separated from plastic.
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Some 8.2 million units were thrown away, or recycled incorrectly, every week prior to the ban.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said usage among young vapers remained too high, and the ban would “put an end to their alarming rise in school playgrounds and the avalanche of rubbish flooding the nation’s streets”.
Circular economy minister Mary Creagh said: “For too long, single-use vapes have blighted our streets as litter and hooked our children on nicotine. That ends today.
“The government calls time on these nasty devices.”
‘One in five say they will return to cigarettes’
Separate research by life insurance experts at Confused.com found two in five people (37%) planned to stop vaping when the ban starts.
Nearly one in five (19%) said they would return to cigarettes once the ban comes into force.
The research was based on the answers of 500 UK adults who currently vape.
Vaping and smoking also appears to be on the rise, with Confused.com saying there was a 44% increase in the number of people declaring they smoke or vape on their life insurance policy since 2019.
Russell Brand has pleaded not guilty to rape and sexual assault charges as he appeared in court in London.
The British comedian and actor, from Hambleden in Buckinghamshire, was charged by post last month with one count each of rape, indecent assault and oral rape as well as two counts of sexual assault.
The charges relate to alleged incidents involving four separate women between 1999 and 2005.
The 49-year-old, who has been living in the US, was flanked by two officers as he pleaded not guilty to all the charges at Southwark Crown Court today.
Image: Russell Brand appears at Southwark Crown Court. Pic: Reuters
Brand stood completely still and looked straight ahead as he delivered his pleas.
The comedian, who has consistently denied having non-consensual sex since allegations were first aired two years ago, is due to stand trial in June 2026.