Single water social tariff: open letter

Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
Seacole Building
2 Marsham Street
London, SW1P 4DF

19 August 2024

Dear Emma Hardy,

In your important role as Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, we are writing to ask you to assess the case for introducing a single social tariff for water bills.

The new UK Government has a huge opportunity to tackle this and meaningfully support people living in poverty with their water costs by creating a single social tariff for water bills.

We believe everyone deserves to be able to afford basic essentials like water. However, we know from the conversations we have with people on low incomes that they often struggle to pay their water bills.

Nationally representative polling commissioned by Independent Age in 2024 found that among people aged 65 and over living on a low income of below £15,000 per year, 38% in England and 29% in Wales said they were keeping up with their water bills, but it was either a constant struggle or a struggle from time to time.

As you may know, current water social tariffs provided by individual companies do offer vital support to people living in poverty, but the postcode lottery means that people living in financial hardship across England and Wales pay vastly different amounts for their water bills.

A single water social tariff would be a simple way to provide fair and consistent support for people in financial hardship, helping ensure more people are able to access the water they need without having to make extreme sacrifices. We strongly believe enacting this recommendation would make a tangible positive difference to the lives of people of all ages living on low incomes.

We hope you will join us, and others across sectors, to make this a reality.

Yours sincerely,

The undersigned

Independent Age
Age Diversity Network
Age UK
Centre for Ageing Better
Christians Against Poverty
Civil Service Pensioners Alliance
Centre for Sustainable Energy
Fair By Design
Money Advice Trust
National Pensioners Convention
National Energy Action
Parkinson’s UK
Re-engage
Royal National Institute of Blind People
Wise Age