With hosepipe bans in force across nine water companies, the message to households is the same everywhere: use less water. But there is a catch almost no one mentions. For nearly four in ten homes in England, using less water will not save a single penny, because they do not pay for what they use. They carry the restriction with none of the reward.
Two ways to pay for water
Roughly 62% of households are on a water meter and pay for every litre they use. The other 38% are unmetered: they pay a fixed annual charge based on their property’s rateable value, a valuation frozen back in 1990, no matter how much water comes out of the tap. That split is the whole story: a metered household can turn a hosepipe ban into a lower bill, while an unmetered one cannot shift its bill however careful it is. Cutting your shower time or letting the lawn go brown changes nothing on a rateable-value bill.
The double penalty
It gets worse for unmetered homes in 2026-27. The average water and sewerage bill in England and Wales is rising from £606 to £639, up 5.4%, and ranges from around £535 to £759 depending on your supplier. At several companies the fixed unmetered charge is climbing faster than the metered one: at Welsh Water, unmetered bills go up 9.7% this year against 6.2% for metered customers. So the households that can do least about their consumption are, in places, being asked to swallow the steepest increase.
The lever you can actually pull
There is a way out, and it is free. Every water company in England must fit a meter free of charge if you ask and your pipework allows it, and there is a two-year safety net: if your metered bills turn out higher, you can switch back to rateable-value charging within 24 months, no questions asked. As a rule of thumb, a meter pays off when there are fewer people in the home than bedrooms, so one or two people in a three-bed house are strong candidates. For them, a hosepipe ban stops being a pure burden and becomes a real chance to save. The reverse is worth knowing too: a large family in a small home usually pays less on a rateable-value bill, so it pays to compare your likely metered cost before you commit.
The same rule runs through your energy bill
The logic behind all this is simple, and it is exactly the logic of your energy bill: you can only cut a cost you are able to act on. The difference is that on energy you always have levers, whatever your meter. You can compare tariffs and switch supplier, and even the standing charge (the fixed daily fee you pay whatever you use, the closest energy has to an unmetered water bill) can be brought down by shopping around. If a hosepipe ban has you thinking about where your money goes, it is worth checking your energy at the same time. It takes minutes to compare energy tariffs, and our guide to cutting your electricity use shows where the biggest savings really sit.