We regulate the amount of revenue water companies are allowed to recover over five years through the price control process. We scrutinise companies’ business plans and challenge them to deliver value for money, while ensuring they can continue to invest to maintain and improve the vital water and sewerage services that customers expect. We set our latest price control determinations in 2024 for 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2030.
Water companies are responsible for determining their charges and ensuring they do not exceed their revenue allowance. We set charging rules that companies must follow when developing their charging schemes and differences in charges for different services need to reflect differences in costs. Their licences also prohibit them from setting charges which show undue discrimination or preference. We do not approve companies’ charges, but we have the powers to intervene if they are or could be breaching the rules or licence conditions. Find out more on our ‘History of changes to our charging rules’ page.
We regulate and oversee a number of different charges that companies set.
Click below to find out more information about our rules and guidance for water companies in setting charges for:
- household customers (charges scheme rules)
- retailers (wholesale charging rules)
- developers and self-lay providers (new connection charges)
- new appointees (bulk supply and discharge charges)
We encourage water companies to trial new ways of charging to support affordability, and potentially other sustainability goals including greater water efficiency. Find out more about charging trials.
This page was last updated on 15 December 2025.
Household customers (Charges Scheme Rules)
A charges scheme is a statement of each company’s charges for household customers and associated terms, such as times and methods of payment.
Our current charging scheme rules that apply to water company charging schemes for household customers came into effect on 1 April 2023.
Retailers (Wholesale Charging Rules)
Wholesale charges are made by wholesalers to business retailers, following the opening of the market for non-household customers to retail competition in 2017.
Since 1 September 2016 (following amendments to the Water Industry Act 1991) we have a duty to set the rules that wholesalers must use when setting their charges for wholesale services.
Our current wholesale charging rules came into effect on 1 April 2022. We consulted on minor changes to our rules, which will take effect on 1 April 2026.
Developers and self lay providers (new connection charges)
The Water Industry Act 1991 (as amended by the Water Act 2014) allows us to set rules about the charges that developers and other customers pay water and wastewater companies for new connections and other infrastructure services. We introduced charging rules for new connection services in England in 2017. These rules include requirements for companies’ charges to reflect principles including fairness, affordability and relevant costs and for companies to use common terms and published worked examples of typical charges, to support developer customers.
For Wales, the Welsh Government has not yet enabled the legal provisions that would allow us to develop a set of new connections rules to apply to companies that are wholly or mainly in Wales.
Our current charging rules for new connection services in England came into effect on 1 April 2025. We consulted on minor changes to our rules, which will take effect on 1 April 2026.
New Appointees
Bulk supplies are a supply of water from one appointed company to another. Bulk discharges are where sewage or wastewater is discharged to another company to treat.
We have established charging rules, between incumbent water companies wholly or mainly in England to comply with in setting bulk charges to supply water to (or discharge water from) most new appointees, which will take effect on 1 April 2026.
For charges to new appointees not covered by the rules, for example between Welsh companies, we have issued guidance, which will also take effect from 1 April 2026.
If water companies fail to agree on the terms of their bulk agreement, including the charges, they can ask us to make a decision (a ‘determination’) about what the terms and conditions should be. The rules and the guidance set out our approach in the event of us making a determination.