Upward price trends are global, tariff survey reveals

Upward-trending UK water prices are in keeping with international patterns, the 2024 Global Water Tariffs Survey shows.

The average increase in combined water, wastewater and stormwater bills between July 2023 and July 2024 was 10.7%, the highest ever recorded in the Global Water Intelligence (GWI) annual tariff survey of water prices around the world.

GWI explained that while the bumper figure is partly driven by unusually high increases in Argentina, “it still reflects a broader trend worldwide of rising water tariffs buoyed by a perfect storm of rising costs, overdue upgrades, necessary expansions, and climate change”. In addition, there is an element of catch up given many utilities put off increasing tariffs during the Covid pandemic, with some even reducing rates or making water free for a time.

In terms of regional trends: 

• Western Europe: The average tariff increase reached 6.8%, an all-time record for the region since the Tariff Survey began thanks to increasing operating costs and new European directives.

• North America: The average tariff increase stood at 5.5%, the highest since 2016, with rates being hiked to fund capital investment plans.

• South Asia: The region struggled to increase tariffs, with only five cities succeeding in implementing rate rises between July 2023 and July 2024, leading to an average increase of just 2.6%.

• The Latin America & Caribbean and Middle East & North Africa regions clocked up 34.6% and 20.8% rises respectively. Spiralling inflation in Argentina and Turkey, sometimes causing triple-digit increases, significantly drove up averages in both regions.

The Global Water Tariff Survey provides price profiles and insights from 616 cities in 190 countries.