Couple shocked by water bills

A COUPLE from Henley say they are being treated unfairly by Thames Water after receiving bills totalling thousands of pounds.

Joyce and Roger Turner, of Makins Road, have been sent four invoices by the water company in the last six months demanding more than £1,200.

The problem first surfaced in April this year when they received an invoice for £1,271.30, an increase of almost seven times their previous bill of £184.02 in October last year.

The Turners then received a revised bill informing them that they had nothing to pay. But six months later, on October 9, the couple were billed £1,742.78, with the billing period being backdated to March 2020.

The following day they received a reduced bill of £1,564.12 for the same period and then last week was sent another for £1,587.06.

The couple say they have been getting down on their hands and knees on the pavement outside of their home to check the readings at the water meter. They have estimated they are using an average of £2.10 of water a day, which would bring their yearly total to £800.

Mrs Turner said she believed the high bills were a result of Thames Water company not regularly reading the meter outside their home.

Over the last four years, the couple claim their meter had only been read once by the company. The last time was in May, after they complained about the increase in prices.

After this, Thames Water sent them a letter in in which they reported the household’s water consumption was “very normal and the usage/consumption is inline” but continued to send the large invoices.

Mrs Turner said she did not believe her and her husband should be punished for the water company’s inefficiency. She said: “I got a bill in April for £1,271 and that's where it all started to kick off and I thought that’s not right. To my knowledge, I have always been paying my water bill and the correct amount.

“I don’t get how they have come to this high figure and then go about changing it every time. It should be plain and simple.

“Ever since we have moved here we have paid by direct debit and we only stopped this once we started receiving bills of between £1,000 and £2,000. I have stopped the direct debit until they sort it.

“I’m sure that they will argue that while they haven’t read the meter in more than four years, we still owe them the money. I just keep thinking – how can this be allowed to happen? Their inefficiency has got people like me paying back-dated bills.” Mrs Turner, who is a swimming coach for Henley Swimming Club, said she wanted more people to be aware of what their water meter is recording.

She said: “I feel there’s nothing transparent. My argument is they’ve estimated our bills over the last four years — their excuse was covid, even though the meter is outside.

“Nurses were working, the policemen were working, the postman was working and yet they can’t come and read it.

“When I ask our neighbours they all go, ‘Oh, I don’t know, I never looked at the water meter’. I just think people should be more aware of what is going on with Thames Water and they should be more aware of what we’re paying.”

The couple, who moved to Henley from Manchester 11 years ago, said that from October 2019 until September 2024 Thames Water had raised its charge per cubic meter from £1.35 to £1.91. Mrs Turner said: “We feel the government should be monitoring all the water services within Great Britain or within England because they have given them the franchise to charge anything they want.

“I think that water consumers, certainly here in the Thames, are not aware of the of the inefficiencies in their accounting system and invoices.

“As consumers, we should ensure that the money we are paying is spent on our resources, such as our rivers and infrastructure.”

Mr Turner, 88, added: “Privatisation works because they’re supposed to be competing with each other but you don’t have a choice in water. You can’t say, ‘Oh, I’m not getting it off Thames Water anymore’. To me, privatisation is only going to work if there’s competition such as there is between providers of electricity.”

A spokesman for Thames Water said they are investigating.