The rise - higher than stated last month - will see the average annual bill rise to £603, but there are significant variations between regions.
Water companies have committed extra money for investment in infrastructure, such as reservoirs, and more help for struggling customers.
However, consumer groups are warning the rise means more households will fall into debt.
Regulator Ofwat outlined forecast bill rises in December, which would cover the next five years.
But the bill rises for the year from April, external, announced by industry body Water UK, are higher than those announced by Ofwat as the calculations now include inflation - so account for rising prices that suppliers face.
The average bill increase equates to around £10 a month, from £40 to £50, but millions of households face even steeper rises.
Southern Water customers told they will see a 47% increase to £703 a year while Hafren Dyfrdwy and South West Water bills are rising by 32%.
Thames Water customers have been warned they will see a 31% hike and Yorkshire Water is raising bills by 29%.
Bournemouth Water customers will also see a 32% increase to their bills.
Other factors, such as whether a customer is metered and how much water they use, means the bill changes will vary considerably for customers depending on their circumstances.
Bill rises for the next five years are being front-loaded, with a big increase this April so that spending on new infrastructure, such as new reservoirs, can get going.
I love how each year everything is more expensive, and my salary has not even increased the inflation in the last two years.
If you could have as much clean water as you want, delivered to interior of your home, without wrecking the environment or greasing the palms of rich layabouts, I think £600 a year would pretty damn cheap.
They’ve got shareholders to feed. Somebody has to pay their inflated dividends.
What strikes me is how a so-called “independent regulator” seems to collaborate with these water companies and make HUGE pay rises seem normal and inevitble.
Joe Lycett did a thing on this. Most of the board of the regulator are ex high ups from the water companies.
Why am I not surprised?
(More and more I have an absolute feeling that I’m being fucked over by already wealthy people - and there’s nothing I can do about it in any way!)
I sincerely hope the suits running these companies go thirsty.
The great business minds running these public services into the ground for profit without any thought for the society that needs them and patting themselves on the back for being so business savvy should maybe stop plundering monopolies and move into the actual private sector and see how able they are there with real competition but I think we know the answer to that one. And while we are about it we could stop tax payer funded regulatory and watchdog bodies that are constantly learning lessons after being discovered to not even provide the most basic functionality for which they were set up and then going right back to the same old willful negligence.
