How we charge
Most business customers in our area of supply are metered, but a few will be on unmetered charges if it has not been practical to install a meter at their property.
The charges cover up to four elements:
Increase in wholesale charges for 2025-26 and for the period 2026-29
Our charges are subject to a formal system of price regulations and control, monitored and enforced by the Water Services Regulation Authority – better known as Ofwat.
Every five years Ofwat carries out a ‘Periodic Review’ of our costs, charges and future investment requirements. Having considered our performance and efficiency in providing services (relative to the other companies in England and Wales), they set a series of annual price limits for each service for the 5 years covered by the review. This determines how much revenue we are allowed to recover every year from each service. In addition, they set out a series of performance measures that we are required to meet. These performance measures, referred to as ‘Output Delivery Incentives’ or more often ‘ODI’s’, reflect customers priorities e.g., reductions in leakage, sewer flooding etc. and can attract financial rewards and penalties – outperforming against an ODI and providing a higher level of service to customers can generate a financial reward, whilst underperforming can give rise to a financial penalty.
We have been allowed funding of £266 million over the 5-year period – up from £199 million in 2020-25. This significant increase recognises a step-change in the Water Industry National
Environment Programme (WINEP), expenditure on the water supply-demand balance, water quality, increased resilience, improved asset health, investment to facilitate population growth and new houses and improved services to customers. Further details of this overall investment and the performance measures that we have agreed to deliver over the next five years can be found below.
The annual revenue controls set by Ofwat (see below) allow us to recover a fixed amount of revenue from our customers. For most of our charges these are then modified by inflation, adjustments for performance and any over or under-recovery in previous years.
The annual increases set out in Ofwat’s Final Determination i.e. before any of the above adjustments are as follows:
2025-26 % |
2026-27 % |
2027-28 % |
2028-29 % |
2029-30 % |
|
| Water Resources activities | 175.52 | 9.36 | 5.36 | -4.65 | -3.60 |
| Network Plus water activities | 21.99 | 9.01 | 3.99 | -9.09 | 5.07 |
| Network plus wastewater activities | 65.19 | 7.95 | 5.92 | 6.90 | 3.72 |
2025-26 % |
2026-27 % |
2027-28 % |
2028-29 % |
2029-30 % |
|
| Bioresources unadjusted revenue | 0.670 | 0.675 | 0.683 | 0.689 | 0.695 |
The above price controls and increases are to fund our investment programme which covers four areas:
To mitigate the impact of the increases referred to above, customers may want to consider whether they can reduce their water usage. Information on water efficiency can be found on our website by following the links below:
These tariffs are for non-household premises using high volumes of water. Retailers should select the wholesale intermediate or large user tariff if it will be beneficial to their customer. In zones A and D (Powys and Monmouthshire):
• The intermediate user tariff will usually benefit sites using between 10,000 and 49,999 cubic metres (m3) of water per annum and is therefore unlikely to apply to customers that are eligible for the non-household retail market.
• The large user tariff will usually benefit sites using 50,000 cubic metres (m3) of water or more per annum (eligible for the market).
In charging zones B and C (Wrexham and Chester), sites will benefit if they use somewhat higher volumes because the standard volumetric rate there is lower than in zones A and D. Retailers will need to assess whether the large user tariff will be cost-effective.
These annual tariffs apply from the first meter reading taken in April each year up until the final meter reading taken in April of the following year. Unlike our standard tariff, we operate peak and off-peak seasons, the latter of which offers a significantly discounted rate. There are additional fixed charges for customers on these tariffs.
This tariff applies to premises that have an alternative source of water supply in addition to a mains water supply from Hafren Dyfrdwy.
The premises must also have an Environment Agency license to extract a minimum of 10,000 cubic metres (m3) per annum from their alternative water source and have the capability to use the alternative source as a backup to the mains supply. Premises that are eligible for this tariff will be charged using capacity charges, volume charges and premium charges.
At the beginning of each year Hafren Dyfrdwy must be notified of the volume that the customer believes will be required from the mains supply. A charge will be calculated based on the capacity required. This will remain fixed throughout the year regardless of whether customers use any more or less than their initial notification.
We will then charge based on the actual volume of water consumed. Where this exceeds the notified volume in either the peak or the off-peak seasons, the excess volume will be subject to premium charges.
We publish indicative wholesale charges for the coming year in October and these are finalised in January each year. We also notify retailers in advance when we are planning to make significant changes to the way we charge (we publish this in July, 9 months before the changes will take effect).
| Charging year | Statement of significant changes | Indicative wholesale charges | Final wholesale scheme |
Non-household customer scheme | Board Assurnace Statement | Flat File |
| 2018-19 | N/A | N/A | Download PDF | Download PDF | ||
| 2019-20 | Download PDF | Download PDF | Download PDF | Download PDF | ||
| 2020-21 | Download PDF | Download PDF | Download PDF | Download PDF | ||
| 2021-22 | Download (PDF) | Download PDF | Download PDF | Download PDF | ||
| 2022-23 | Download (PDF) | Download (PDF) | Download PDF | |||
| 2023-24 | Download PDF | Download (PDF) | ||||
| 2024-25 | Download (PDF) | Download (PDF) | Download (PDF) | Download (PDF) | ||
| 2025-26 | Download (PDF) | Download (PDF) | Download (PDF) | Download (PDF) | Download (PDF) | Download (XLS) |