Frequently asked questions

 The South East of England is officially classed by the Government as being in ‘serious water stress’. This means demand for water is only a bit lower than the amount available, with only a small proportion left over for the environment. 

In addition, climate change is affecting how much water is available for us to supply and it is predicted that droughts will become more common and severe. The water we supply comes from local rivers and underground sources that feed rare chalk streams, which are under threat from climate change. 

So, at SES Water, we need to plan to make sure there is enough water for all our customers and to protect the environment, which provides our water supplies.

Reducing the demand for water is an important part of how we will achieve this. Evidence shows that, on average, metered customers use 15 per cent less water, meaning that by having a meter customers are not only using water more efficiently, they are – in most cases - also lowering their bills.

That’s why we’ve started to provide meters for our customers who don’t currently have one, in the hope that by 2025 90% of our customers will be on a meter. 

Many people see their water bill fall when they move to a meter, but for some it will increase. If you are worried about paying your bill, we can provide you with additional financial support. 

Please see our 'Moving to metered water bills' page for more information on when you will start paying for your water on metered charges. 

You can also visit our 'Helping you save water, energy and money' page for details of the practical advice and support we can provide to help you keep your bills affordable. 

Yes, we have the legal right to install meters for our customers, under the Water Industry Act 1991 (amended in 1999). 

This is because the area in which we operate  has been classed as ‘water stressed’ by the Environment Agency, and the Government has approved our Water Resource Management Plan which includes installing meters for all customers. 

We want to work with our customers to help them use less water and ensure their bills remains affordable. 

Metering is a much fairer way to charge for water as, like electricity or gas, everyone only pays for what they use. We hope our customers will understand this and be willing to move to metered charges so they are only billed for what they use, while helping to protect the environment by using water more wisely.

If you are worried about being able to afford your metered water bills, we have a range of support available that you may be eligible for, to help make sure your bill is affordable for you. Please visit our 'Supporting you' page for more information.

If we need to fit a meter inside the boundary of you home and you a) do not allow access to your home to have a meter fitted or b) do not respond to our attempts to contact you to allow access, you will be notified by letter that you will be moved to a new tariff called a ‘No Access Charge’. 

Once we have written to you, you’ll be given at least four weeks to respond to us. The new tariff will be based on your existing unmeasured charges plus an additional 75%, for example if you currently pay £200 per year this will increase to £350 per year (£200 + £150). 

Your sewerage provider may also move you onto a No Access Charge for their sewerage bill, once notified by us that the water tariff has changed to a No Access Charge. Both Thames Water and Southern Water have similar charges for both water and sewerage.

If we don’t hear from you, you’ll be automatically moved over to the No Access Charge and we’ll confirm to you in writing once it’s done. If a No Access Charge has been placed on your account, we will remove it once a meter has been installed.

The standard process will then apply and you will be either moved onto metered charges or the Assessed Household Charge, depending on whether a meter could be fitted at your home. You will not receive any rebate for each month you were on the No Access Charge up to that point.

Water meters are the fairest way of charging for water, as you pay for what you use - just like for electricity and gas.  

Typically, households with meters use around 15 per cent less water and this can help reduce energy bills as well. About a third of energy used in the home goes on heating water for washing dishes and clothes, bathing and showering. 

Another benefit is that having a water meter makes it easier to spot if there is a leak on your property e.g. dripping taps or a leaky toilet.  

Many people see their water bill fall when they move to a meter, but for some it will increase. 

If you are worried about paying your bill, we can provide you with additional financial support. Visit our 'Supporting you' page for further details.

We will work to make sure there is as little disruption or inconvenience as possible, all while protecting everyone’s health and safety. Where possible we will always try to complete works the same day.

You can visit our 'What happens when your meter's fitted' page for more.

We're not always able to fit a water meter for every home. Common reasons include complex pipework or the lack of a suitable location. If this is the case, you will still receive a bill from us, but it will be under a fixed rate known as the Assessed Household Charge. You will be automatically moved over to this tariff and we will write to let you know this.

Assessed Charges are annual sums which reflect the estimated amount of water used, based on the number of bedrooms and the number of people living in your home.

We can offer eligible customers the ‘WaterSure’ tariff.  This caps the bills for certain metered household customers at the average household bill for their area.  It applies to metered customers who receive specified benefits and: 

- Have three or more dependent children living with them; or 

- Suffer from (or have someone living with them who suffers from) a medical condition that involves using large volumes of water.

If you think you may qualify for the 'WaterSure' tariff, please contact us for more information on how to apply.  We can also offer other support with your bills, depending on your circumstances. See our 'Supporting you' page for more.

You can book a free, 20-minute virtual water efficiency check by completing the GetWaterFit calculator - just click here 

The check will provide advice on your water usage, how to fit free water saving devices as well as fixing simple leaks to toilets and taps - all without the technician needing to come into your home. 

Our ‘Every Drop Counts’ booklet contains plenty of water saving tips and advice. It can be read online by clicking here. A few of our top tips include: 

• Turn off the tap while brushing your teeth or shaving - this saves around 6 litres of water every minute  

• Take a five-minute shower rather than filling up your bath, which uses around 100 litres of water 

• Make sure washing machines and dishwashers run on a full load.

There is also a whole range of free devices available to help you save water and money, which include eco-shower heads, shower timers and tap aerators. A link to our free pack page can be found here.

Most of the new meters we will be installing will be Elster V210 water meters, which are not smart, as with many modern electricity and gas meters that collect and send usage data on a continuous basis.

However, the Elster meters are fitted with an Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) function. This allows our water meter readers to collect the data needed without having to read the meter dial. They do this by using a handheld unit which receives a radio signal from the radio module on the water meter.

Our water meters are normally located outside properties at the boundary of the street. The radio modules do not emit a signal continuously or even at frequent intervals. The radio module is idle for most of the time and only transmits for a few seconds when the water meter is being read. This typically occurs once every six months. The radio module used is very low powered at 25 milliwatts and the signal rapidly decreases with the distance travelled. The average mobile phone emits two watts, which is 80 times more than the radio modules of the water meters.

Between 2024 and 2025 we are aiming to provide smart meters to 10% of our customers. This will allow us to better understand the benefits of this technology in helping customers use water more wisely and helping us to provide a better service – for example, identifying leaks more easily and speedily).

A water meter is a device fitted to the water service pipe that records how much water is used at a property. 

However, with new technology, we are now able to fit meters which are much more advanced and can benefit both customers and the environment - increased accuracy allows us to manage consumption, improve billing information and helps us manage our water resources more sustainably.

With a standard water meter, we usually take a reading every six months. This means we can only provide you with information on your water usage months after it has occurred.

In contrast, smart water meters can accurately measure, record and transmit water consumption virtually in real-time. This allows you to understand and monitor your water usage, as well as helping us manage our network (e.g. pinpoint leaks more easily) and provide better customer service.

Smart meters have a number of advantages, including:

1. Manage usage – smart meters can track consumption on an hourly or daily basis. This means you can see how much you are using and compare this to how much you have used in the past. This helps you to understand which actions lead to the greatest amount of water being used. This feedback encourages lower water usage and less wastage
2. Accurate bills – charges will be based on the readings we receive daily, although you will still be billed as normal – usually every six months. We can alert you if your bill is higher than normal – which may indicate a leak
3. Remote real-time data collection – less need to visit properties to read meters manually
4. Better understanding of water demand – smart meter data, alongside data from our network meters, allows us to manage and predict demand more accurately. This helps us to prioritise new investments in the future
5. Identifying leaks more quickly – being able to monitor consumption more closely means we’ll be able to pick up when water use increases and identify more quickly if this is due to a leak. Sometimes, leaks can go unnoticed for some time, wasting water and on occasion causing damage to your property so early detection will help to avoid this. 

The smart meter data can be viewed through a secure portal available on any smart device.

Consumption data can be viewed by year, month, day or the last 30 hours. Average consumption can also be calculated based on the number of occupants at the property. This figure can then be compared to the average in our supply area, so you can compare yourself with other similar households.

How secure is the data gathered via smart meters?

Data is transmitted securely through the mobile phone network - no Wi-Fi access is required. 

Access to devices and the data we collect is strictly limited. Specific protocols and high security standards, such as encrypted transmission or anti-tampering countermeasures, will ensure the security of smart water meter data and prevent unauthorised access.

High security standards will also ensure protection of users’ data, including both personal and consumption data.

Sadly, more than half the ‘bogus caller’ or ‘doorstep’ crimes in the UK are committed by criminals pretending to be from a water company, or from the 'water board' - which hasn’t existed for more than 30 years!   

So, it’s important to know what you can do to check that callers are genuine before you let them in.

Always remember: 

• Make sure your back door is always locked before answering the front door
• Check to see who is at the door by looking through a window or spy hole
• If you have a door chain, put it on before you open the door
• Our staff always wear a uniform and drive a company van with SES Water printed on the sides and at the back 
• Staff always carry an identity card with their photograph, name, logo and number
• Our staff will always be happy to wait for you to check who they are (we are happy for you to call us to double check their identity)
• You can set up a password that our staff will use when visiting you. Find out more about this and other support available through our Helping Hand Scheme
• If you are still not sure, call the police

In general, when we are installing water meters, we will not need to enter your home.

We will also liaise closely with local police, Neighbourhood Watch and other community groups, so that everyone knows where we are working and we can work together to keep everyone safe and prevent crimes.

We can also offer additional support, if you feel that would be suitable for you.

Our Helping Hand Scheme

We pride ourselves on providing you with a reliable supply of clean fresh drinking water. We also take our commitment to be there when you need us equally seriously.

If ever you need extra support, you can always ask for our help - please see www.seswater.co.uk/your-account/priority-customers/helping-hand-scheme.

Our Priority Services Register

The Priority Services Register (PSR) is free to join. It helps utility companies like us look after customers who have health, access or extra communication needs and helps us tailor our services to support households who need extra help.

For more details, please go to www.seswater.co.uk/your-account/priority-customers.

Once we’ve fitted your new water meter, we will give you details of where it can be found on the front of the information pack we’ll give you.

The pack will include important information on what you may need to do next and how we restore areas we’ve needed to dig up.

In particular, we’ll advise you:

• If you need to run your kitchen cold tap briefly to remove any harmless chlorine or particles
• If you have lead pipework. In which case, we recommend you run your kitchen cold tap for at least 10 minutes before using the water again. Over the following three days, you should run the tap for two minutes after not using it for a while, such as overnight. There is no cause for concern – doing this allows the pipe's natural protective layer to re-establish inside. More information can be found on our website
• If you should contact your electricity company or a qualified electrician to check if your water service pipe is used as an electrical earth. If so, this may need to be changed – this is more likely if your property was built before 1966

If your water pressure has reduced, you should try turning your internal stop-tap off and on a few times. This is normally located under or close to your kitchen sink. You can also try cleaning the filter (if you have one) at the end of your kitchen tap.

If we have disturbed the area around where your meter has been fitted, we'll return to restore the area within a month.

If we have needed to removed block paving or paving slabs, we will let you know this, as well as whether we have taken them away for safe keeping or have left them at your property (we’ll tell you exactly where)

Of course, if you have any queries or concerns about your water meter or its installation, please do contact us. You can call us on tel. 01737 919485, or send us an email to metering@seswater.co.uk