Bills increasing for North East households
Energy prices, council tax, your mobile phone, broadband, car tax and more are rising from today
Last updated 1st May 2025
Households across the North East and Teesside are facing higher bills from today.
The energy price cap is going up by 6 percent, most councils in the region are upping council tax by 5 percent and then there's mobile phone, broadband, car tax and more bills increasing.
Water is going up by ÂŁ79 a year on average and Mark Wilkinson, from Northumbrian Water, said: "We have put more provision in our plans, so part of our plan over the next five years is to double the level of support that we have. We currently support around 100,000 customers and I expect by 2030, that'll be closer to 200,000.
"We knew bills were going up and we decided to make put extra money in to cover that. We've actually got an additional ÂŁ21 million shareholder hardship fund that we're introducing for people as well, so we've been looking at that and realising that it does put pressure on people's bills. We do know what's been going on in the economy and we understand other bills are going up and that's hard for people.
"On average that will be ÂŁ79 a year or ÂŁ1.53 a week for the 25/26 year. It's still going to be one of the lowest bills in the country and actually I think with this increase we'll be the lowest bill in the Northern region.
"What we're doing is upping the level of investment that we make in the next five years, so for we'll be investing ÂŁ2.6bn in the economy and improving the poor sewage network. That's by far the biggest five-year investment we've ever made. It will be around investing in upgrading key infrastrucutre including pipelines, treatment works, pumping stations and to improve the company's environmental performance.
"It's a one-off increase, so we get a big increase in bills this time around but actually we expect bills to be fairly modest over the next two or three years and paying now I appreciate that's difficult for customers.
"The funds that we raise from increased water bills will only fund improvements in the region. We spend minimum 60p in every ÂŁ1 with local suppliers to make sure that what investment we do make stays in the region and helps support jobs and the economy.
"The easiest thing to do is to go onto our website and actually on the frontpage, it talks about the help and advice. If you click through there, there's four or five really simple questions you can do on our eligibility checker."
For more information, visit the Northumbrian Water website.