Average water bills in England and Wales will increase by 36% over the next five years, the water regulator Ofwat has said.

The rise is equivalent to an average extra cost of £31 per year.

Water companies had asked for an average rise of 40%.

The regulator’s draft determinations issued in July said bills would rise by an average of 21% up to 2030.

It comes as almost 60,000 homes across Hampshire are without water because of a “technical issue” at a Southern Water supply works.

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.

Why are bills going up?

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.

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.

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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.”

Almost 60,000 homes across Hampshire are without water because of a “technical issue” at a Southern Water supply works, the company has said.

Homes in Southampton, Romsey, Eastleigh, Totton, and parts of the New Forest have been affected by problems at the Testwood water supply works preventing water from leaving the site.

Southern Water apologised and said it was working hard to restore supplies, but warned the issue might continue until the weekend.

Long queues have been reported at bottle stations which have been set up at the Places Leisure Centre in Eastleigh, Sainsbury’s superstore in Southampton and Asda superstore in Totton.

Five charts that explain why water bills are about to go up

Southern Water said they are continuing to deliver water supplies to customers registered on their priority list and estimate that around 58,000 homes have been affected.

It said they have supplied dedicated tankers to Southampton General Hospital and Princess Anne Hospital. Several schools in the area say they are unlikely to open today.

In a statement on its website, Southampton General said: “We are working with Southern Water on contingency arrangements to ensure our hospitals continue to maintain water supplies.”

It added: “We ask patients to continue to attend appointments as planned but to allow extra time for their journey and in accessing parking facilities, due to the access requirements being put in place to enable delivery of those supplies.”

Southern Water has said it hopes supply will be restored throughout Thursday, but said the issue may not be fully resolved until the weekend.

“We are working towards all customers being back in supply by the weekend,” it said.

The outage comes as consumers in England and Wales prepare to hear today how much water bills will rise.

Southern Water wants the regulator Ofwat to allow it to increase bills by a whopping 84%, while struggling Thames Water has asked for a 53% rise.

Ofwat is expected to announce that charges will increase by more than 20% by 2030, which means an average rise of £20 a year per household and the average bill rising from £448 a year to £542.

Ofwat’s draft decisions released in July allowed water companies to increase bills by an average of 21%, before inflation is added, over the next five years to help fund £88 billion of investment in improving services and the environment.

The proposed bill rises would begin to take effect from April next year.

The policing minister has said she wants forces “to do far more” to tackle shoplifting after figures obtained by Sky News showed fewer than one in four incidents were attended to by officers in 2023.

Dame Diana Johnson blamed declining officer numbers under the previous government but also said she wanted to “see shop theft treated seriously…and the police need to play their part”.

She was reacting to figures obtained by Sky News under the Freedom of Information Act that reveal officers turning up to fewer and fewer incidents over the last decade.

Just 22% of shoplifting incidents were attended to immediately by police in 2023, based on responses from 22 of England’s 39 police forces.

In 2016, data from 17 forces gave an attendance rate of 52% – more than twice the 2023 figure.

While in 2013, figures from 11 forces suggested an attendance rate of 72% – more than three times higher than a decade later.

Looking at just the 2013 and 2016 data sets, a clear trend of declining attendance rates is seen.

Some of the police forces who responded to our request said this was because of modern more remote investigation techniques.

Others said that while officers may not always attend crime scenes immediately, they will often follow up at a later date if there are credible lines of enquiry.

However, store owners and workers have complained that a lack of police attention towards retail crime has created an atmosphere where criminals believe they can steal with few repercussions.

Earlier this year the British Retail Consortium said violence and abuse against retail workers had risen substantially to 1,300 per day in 2022/23.

Sky News has seen CCTV showing one shop worker in south London being threatened by three people on Christmas Day 2023.

The thieves steal scratch cards and spirits and attempt to assault a cashier, who fights back with what appears to be a spanner.

Another London store owner said he used to keep a baseball bat and pepper spray behind his counter, but was told to remove them by police.

“We can’t stop them, hold them or anything… shopkeepers are so vulnerable at the moment,” said Dennis Mariyaesan.

He also accused the police of not attending shop theft incidents and not taking the crime seriously enough.

Commander Owain Richards from the Metropolitan Police said: “Our call handlers will assess each and every report and make an assessment based on available lines of enquiry.”

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A retail crime action plan was published by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) last year prioritising attendance to incidents where violence was involved or where an offender had been detained.

However, levels of shop theft have increased dramatically in recent years leading to pressure on police resources.

A spokesperson for the NPCC said: “We have made significant strides in our fight against retail crime, strengthening relationships with retailers and greatly improving information sharing which has resulted in a number of high harm offenders being brought to justice.”

Dame Diana told Sky News: “We know over the last year there’s been a 29% increase… in shop theft. That cannot go on, we need to take action and the police need to play their part.”

She also pointed to declines in officer numbers as a possible reason for the drop in attendance rates.

The police headcount fell by around 20,000 between 2010 and 2017 before rising again by 25,000 by 2023 amid a recruitment push launched under Boris Johnson.

The Labour government has pledged an additional 13,000 additional neighbourhood officers by 2029.

Sir Keir Starmer has also promised a “named, contactable police officer” in every neighbourhood and an axing of the 2014 law that means “low value” thefts of under £200 are subject to less serious punishments.