South Scotland MSP and Scottish Labour’s Spokesperson on Net Zero Colin Smyth has criticised the move by Scottish Water to hike water charges by 5%.

The Government owned firm announced today (Thursday 2 February) that bills will rise in April, and follow on from a 4.2% increase last year. The move will increase average charges for water and sewerage by £19.25 annually.

Last year it was revealed that bosses at Scottish Water had been paid bonuses of £227,000 in one year and the company were sitting on £500 million in reserves.

In December, Colin Smyth urged the Scottish Government to intervene to ensure that bills don’t increase this year to protect families facing a cost of living crisis.

South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth said, “ It is shocking that SNP and Green Ministers are not intervening to stop Scottish Water hiking up bills when so many households are struggling to pay their existing bills.

“People are in the midst of the worst cost of living crisis for decades, while Scottish Water sit on half a billion pounds of reserves. They should be using some of those reserves to cushion the impact of these price hikes.
“The Scottish Government are piling pressure on to those who can least afford it by nodding through these hikes to water charges, while Scottish Water threw around almost a quarter of a million pounds in bonuses for their bosses”.