Water bills were over tide-mark (From Gazette Series)

Water bills were over tide-mark

SEVERN Trent Water customers will receive a refund after an investigation found it had overcharged users throughout the country.

Ofwat, the regulatory body, ruled that households had been charged between £2 to £3 a year too much during 2004-05. It also said the company's price plan for 2005-10 had been set too high.

Customers across the UK would have paid an extra £42 million more than necessary by 2009-10 if the ruling had not been made.

Over 3.5 million customers will now receive an apology and refund of £4 in their next bill from the company.

Severn Trent Water, which takes charge of sewers in parts of Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire, the Midlands and parts of Yorkshire, has restructured its management team and promised to prevent similar incidents from happening again - complying with demands from Ofwat.

The firm's managing director Tony Wray said this week: "Our customers have been overcharged £14 million between 2004 and 2007. We are working now on repaying that, but we have already started voluntarily to put things right by raising prices £7 million less than allowed under 2006-07 price limits.

"We apologise unreservedly to our customers for poor internal processes and systems of control which unintentionally led to price limits for the period 2005 - 2010 being set too high."

Philip Fletcher, director general of Ofwat, said: "Customers have the right to expect companies to maintain the highest governance standards, including effective processes and controls, at all times.

"Severn Trent Water's approach fell significantly below these standards. I view very seriously the findings and the conclusions we have drawn from our investigation."

To view Ofwat's report visit www.ofwat.gov.uk