Our region is the driest in the UK.  By 2049 we’re predicting a gap of 589 megalitres a day between the amount of water available to us and the amount our customers will need. (A megalitre is a million litres – enough to supply around 8,000 people.)   

In recent years, the impacts of climate change have become clearer to see, with summers becoming hotter and drier. We’re introducing seasonal tariffs to help encourage customers to use less water.  Which means we need to take less from the environment to meet the needs of customers, which in turn helps create a more sustainable region.   

Your sewerage charges will be the same as our Standard tariff. You can find out more about our tariffs for next year here. 

Your sewerage charges are normally based on 90% of the water you use at home.  So using less water at home will also help reduce these charges too. 

For trial users in Lincoln and Norwich, the tariff started in April 2024 and will be reviewed at the end of March 2026. For those in Northampton and Colchester, the tariff starts in April 2025 and will be reviewed at the end of March 2027. 
 
As we do with all of our other tariffs, we'll review the rates that apply each year and these may change from 01 April 2025 (Lincoln and Norwich) or 01 April 2026 (Northampton and Colchester).

Yes. Like our Smart meter programme, this project is part of our legal obligation to manage and protect the water supply in our region. This includes supporting our public interest commitments agreed by water companies with Water UK which include finding leaks and helping our customers save water.

We’re making these tariffs compulsory for selected customers rather than asking customers to opt in. This will help us understand the effect they have on water usage more accurately than if we only included customers who chose to move to them.  

If you’re eligible, you may switch to one of our discounted tariffs, WaterSure, AquaCare, or LITE.  Check your eligibility by calling our Extra Care Team on 0800 169 3630, or complete an Extra Care Assessment application here.  

No, we calculate your monthly payments based on an estimate of your ‘annual’ charges, with an adjustment to cover any credit or balance at the time of the assessment.

The amount you pay each month will be the same to spread your overall charges evenly over the year. You can review or change your monthly payment in MyAccount. 

When we look at usage data as part of planning the new tariffs, it shows that customers will roughly fit into one of three groups. Two thirds will pay broadly the same or marginally less than if they stayed on our Standard tariff.  One third who use more in the summer will pay marginally more.  

The usage data shows that low summer users will be better off by around £17 a year.  High summer users will pay around £18 more than they do now per year.  Which is around an 8% difference of what they’d pay on their current Standard tariff. 

As there are more low summer users, overall there should be no difference in the total amount of all our bills. If customers help and reduce their usage, longer term we’ll need less investment in new water resources and treatment capacity like reservoirs.  This means we’ll be able to keep any bill increases lower than they would be otherwise. 

Ofwat regulate charging rules that govern how water companies set their bills to make sure that they are fair and transparent. They regulate the amount of revenue each company is allowed to charge customers through their water bills.  We set charges in order to work within this allowance based on the forecast of customer numbers and their demand.

The different rates of our seasonal tariff are part of the calculation to achieve a neutral position against this allowance. If we generate any additional revenue, we’re required to pay this back to customers in a subsequent charging year

We expect the overall amount customers on these tariffs will pay will be the same as if they were still on the Standard tariff.  It will just be based on different rates and differences in their summer and winter usage.  As well as looking after the water supply, we have an obligation to help customers save water.

We’ve selected areas of Lincoln, Norwich, Northampton and Colchester, where we’ve had smart meters in place for three years or more. These areas gave us over two years of usage information to model the impact the seasonal tariffs. This helped us create the rates so that the overall amount we expect customers to pay on average is similar as if they were on our Standard tariff.  

We used demographic data to make sure that each of the trial groups comprised customers with a mixture of different backgrounds and lifestyles.  Then used an algorithm to create customer groups to move to these seasonal tariffs. The algorithm helped create these groups, but we manually decided which tariff would apply to each group. 

We’ve selected customers who have lived at the property for three years (at the start of the trial), are on our Standard tariff (not one of our discounted ones) and aren’t registered as needing additional water for a medical condition. We also removed customers where there were fewer than 10 properties in a postcode. 

We’re testing the new tariffs in two locations with different groups in each location.  Across which we’ll use two different prices as well as different communication strategies.  

There’ll be around 1000 customers in each group. We’ve selected customers who have been living in a property with a smart meter for three years or more, are on our Standard tariff, and aren’t on our Priority Services Register because they use more water for medical reasons. 

We’ve picked customer groups based on geographic proximity within postcode areas, and to make sure we have a range of different household types in terms of size, approximate income etc so we can see if the tariffs help customers use less water.  

The size of the customer groups on the tariffs is finalised and now closed.  We’re not able to add more customers - see ‘My neighbour’s not on this tariff’ FAQ above. Ofwat have set out good practice principles for conducting a tariff trial.  That they are based on a fair and neutral approach, to make sure findings are robust and unbiased, and are large enough to be meaningful but small enough to manage. We’ve based the size and customer group selection on this principle.

Customers on our Priority Services Register, where they use more water because of a medical condition haven’t been included in the customer groups we’ve picked for these tariffs. If that applies to you and you’re not on our Priority Services Register please call 03457 919 155 or sign up here.  

If you move home (and stay within the Anglian Water region) then the seasonal tariff will no longer apply.  You’ll be moved onto a different tariff based on your situation and eligibility for our discounted tariffs.  

We understand the challenge of water scarcity in our region. Our region is the driest in the UK.  By 2049 we’re predicting a gap of 443 megalitres a day between the amount of water available to us and the amount our customers will need. (A megalitre is a million litres – enough to supply around 7,000 customers.)  
 
That’s why we have a water resources management plan to help balance both the supply and demand for water in our region. We have the best leakage track record in the country (half the national average).  Repairing around 30,000 leaks every year, many within 24 hours. Plus, we’re creating a strategic pipeline to move water to where it’s needed most, as well as progressing plans for two new reservoirs.  
 
Given the scale of the challenge we all face, we feel it’s fair to ask our customers to help use a little less too. By 2025 we’ll have invested £31m rolling out 1m smart meters which help us spot leaks quicker. Also giving our customers more information to understand their own water usage and find opportunities to use less. Which is better for their bills and the environment as it means we need to take less water from the natural sources to keep up with demand. 

Our engagement with customers about water use and their priorities for the next five years are covered under our PR24 business plan.  They’ve highlighted water efficiency and sustainability as key concerns.  We consider a seasonal tariff aligns strongly with our position as the driest region in the UK and our ambition to “love every drop”.   
 
In specific surveys with our online panel, they’ve agreed that tariffs aimed at reducing demand would be a fair and effective means of encouraging customers to use less water. When asked, customers consistently underestimate their own usage. Around half of our customers estimate they use about 50 litres per person per day, when in fact we can see on average it’s more like 130 litres each per day. 
 
Higher summer rates will be offset by discounted rates in the winter.  We’ve structured the tariff so that customers whose usage is consistent throughout the year will be no worse off.  Where their usage (average daily consumption) increases in the summer they will pay more on an annualised basis than they would on the Standard tariff.   
 
We consider this fair, as it targets discretionary or extra usage seen in the summer rather than just higher average usage.  This makes sure that households with more people living at home aren’t unfairly discriminated against, or that properties with less people living at home don’t automatically benefit more either.  
 
If customers want to use more water in the summer, we’d like to encourage them to save water elsewhere to offset that e.g. by taking shorter showers. 

Absolutely.  You might not realise that around 70% of the water we use at home is in the bathroom.  So things like keeping showers to a max of 5 minutes can make a big difference. There’s lots of small swaps and changes you can make in the kitchen, bathroom, and garden that can help you use less at home. Take a look at our water saving tips.

We’ve based when the higher summer rates apply on the period when we typically see customers as a whole using more water. April and September can be cold and wet depending on the year, whereas May to August are generally warmer.  The warmest months are also the driest, and when customers are more likely to use water for gardening, paddling pools or other recreational activities.  

At the end of the tariff period we’ll look at the different customer groups who’ve taken part.  We'll analyse the amount of water they’ve used along with the different prices and messages we’ve sent them. We’ll compare these against our control group (who aren’t on the new tariffs) to see what difference these elements had before making a decision on if we’ll roll out the tariffs to other customers. 

As we do with all our customers with a smart meter, if your meter readings suggest you have a leak at home we’ll still get in touch to let you know. And if eligible you’ll still be able to claim a leakage allowance once it’s fixed.

We’ll use your smart meter readings to help us understand the impact of our seasonal tariffs, how much water customers are using and whether they are helping customers save water.

We’ll use the daily readings from your smart meter to help us understand any changes to the patterns of how customers on the tariffs are using water at home.

As we have a legal obligation to look after the water resources in our region, we’re using Public Interest as the legal basis for using these readings in the trial under Article 6 of the UK GDPR.

You can find more information about the data we collect, what we use it for and how we look after it in our Privacy Notices here. 

We’ll use your meter readings for as long as the seasonal tariffs run for billing purposes.  These will be retained in line with our standard billing retention practices.  Meter readings used to monitor the effectiveness of the trial will be retained only as long as required for this purpose.

The tariffs are currently set to run for two years. If your tariff started in 2024, this will be reviewed at the end of March 2026. If it started in 2025, we’ll review this at the end of March 2027.