Yorkshire Water using bailiffs most often to collect unpaid bills
The report says companies across the country are turning to enforcement agents more, with bailiff action peaking last year.
Last updated 19 hours ago
MPs say Yorkshire Water is among the top firms sending bailiffs to chase people who haven’t paid their water bills.
The figures show the use of bailiffs has hit its highest level in recent years, with questions over whether companies are being fair to struggling households.
Between 2019 and 2025, United Utilities, Yorkshire Water, Southern Water, South West Water and Northumbrian Water were some of the most significant users of bailiffs, according to data published by the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) Committee.
There were also high peaks of overall usage by some companies, the figures show. In 2022, Severn Trent instructed bailiffs 11,574 times and in 2019 Southern Water instructed bailiffs on 15,707 occasions.
The overall use of bailiffs across the industry peaked in 2023 and 2024, even while some companies used them less in this period.
MPs are now asking Citizens Advice to look into why bailiff use shot up after the pandemic.
A Yorkshire Water spokesman said: "Enforcement action is a last resort and is only taken against customers who we determine, using internal data and external credit agencies, have the ability to pay their bill but are choosing not to. We believe that is the right approach for our customer base as a whole."
A United Utilities spokesman said: "We only take court action to enforce judgments against those customers that we believe have the financial resources to pay their bill and we only do so after we have made significant efforts to engage with the customers.
"We take this action to ensure that we can keep all customers' bills as low as possible."
A Southern Water spokesman said: "We work hard to ensure customers who are struggling get the support they need, such as our social tariff schemes - these offer at least 45% off bills, and which from April will benefit almost 200,000 households, or around 10% of our customers.
"We're delivering our biggest ever investment plan, spending around £8.5 billion to meet the expectations of our customers in protecting the environment and improving services. Alongside shareholder investment, we rely on bill payments to deliver these improvements."
South West Water said: "The Efra figures don't reflect actual bailiff visits - they also include non-visit actions like payment plans. We only ever use enforcement action as a last resort.
"Our priority is always to support customers who are struggling, and we offer a wide range of financial support such as our WaterCare tariff scheme to help people stay on track with their bills."