Anglian Water customers will see their annual bill drop by £29 on average after the water company announced prices for the coming year will come down by 7 per cent.

According to the water company, it is the biggest percentage saving for customers, outstripping all other water and sewerage companies in the UK.

 The average annual bill will reduce to £402 per year, or £1.10 per day.  Customers with a water meter will pay even less, with the average bill dropping to £371.

The price cut is part of Anglian Water’s promise to keep bills as low as possible, while at the same time delivering a multi-billion pound, five year investment programme to maintain and improve essential water and sewerage services for its customers.

This is all part of Anglian Water’s five year Business Plan to 2020 which is focussed on investing in the areas that matter most to customers, including a £60million war on leakage; protecting customers and the environment from severe weather such as drought and flooding; and tackling the impacts of climate change. It also pledged to increase to £1million a year the amount of money available to help vulnerable customers facing financial hardship.

 Martyn Oakley, Anglian Water’s Director of Customer Service, said:

“We know household budgets remain under pressure. So we believe this price cut is timely and coming at a time when customers tell us they need it most.”

The projects in the planned £5 billion AMP6 investment period include:

• £19 million in the first year of the Plan to keep leakage levels the lowest in the UK - part of a five year, £60 million investment on leakage
• £22 million to improve the resilience of the network from Grafham Water Treatment Works, which supplies water for over 1.5 million people
• £42 million investment at the water treatment works and water recycling centre in Norwich.The schemes have been designed to protect the natural environment in the River Wensum and support the predicted growth of Norwich.
• £3.5 million for flood projects that will help to overcome the challenges of complex, multi-owned, and interconnected drainage networks.
• £10 million to connect hundreds more homes to the mains sewerage network for the first time in the next year, with more than £70 million investment over the five years
• Over £10 million to improve and protect the coastline and the region’s coastal waters
• £60 million to protect the natural environment and improve the raw water quality of the rivers and watercourses.

Martyn Oakley added that Anglian Water has also pledged to fit 95 per cent of homes with a water meter by 2020 which would not entail making metered bills compulsory because the savings to be achieved speak for themselves. The average bill for metered customers next year will fall to £371 compared to the average unmetered bill of £516.