Coronavirus: information for our customers and how we can help you.

We want to reassure you that we’re keeping our core services going for you while we maintain the safety and wellbeing of all our teams during the current time.

We know it's a difficult time for many businesses. Please let us know if you have any concerns about your water account and we'll talk to you about how we can help.You can get in touch with us by phone, 0345 072 6072, or email, using the address on your bill. 

How we can help you

We can stop your water charges if your site is closed temporarily

If your site has closed, as a direct result of the coronavirus, we can put your account on hold and mark your site as temporarily vacant. This will ensure you don’t incur charges for your water during this period.
Please complete our quick online form to let us know.

Let us know about your business reopening - use our reopening form

If your business site has been temporarily closed because of the coronavirus and is reopening, or is already open again, please let us know using our reopening form.
If you're planning to reopen your business, we have some water health and safety tips you might want to consider to help you.

We can talk about your payment options

We’re working with business who need our support to let them know about their options around payment plans and timescales. If this will help you, please get in touch.

We'll need to talk to you if your site has closed permanently

If your site has unfortunately permanently closed because of the coronavirus, please let us know and we’ll talk to you about what we need to do.

Please note: if your site is in Scotland, please call us. Normal industry-wide guidelines still apply at the moment. If a business stops trading, either temporarily or permanently, charges continue up to the point the business no longer has a legal right to occupy the property. If you’re struggling to pay, please let us know, so we can discuss your options.

We can reassess your Direct Debit payment 

If the amount of water your business is using is likely to be less, let us know and we can look at your Direct Debit payments.

We've stopped and paused some actions to help:

• Stopped all late payment fees or interest charges so you don’t need to worry about these if you’re having problems paying.
• Paused all enforcement action for non-payment of bills - we won’t pass any accounts to our debt collection agency or charge any fees for this.
• Stopped all disconnections for customers who haven’t paid their bills.

These three measure are in place from 8 April until 31 May 2020. These dates have been set by Ofwat (the water industry regulator). The end date may change, if it does, we’ll keep you up to date on this webpage.

While we’re taking these actions, it’s important that businesses that can pay their bills on time as normal should continue to do so.

We're part of ongoing industry talks

We’re working with Ofwat (the industry regulator in England) and Defra (the government department responsible for water), wholesalers and other industry partners about further steps and action to help customers during this ever changing and challenging time.

What else you can do

• If you don’t pay by Direct Debit, it's a good way to spread the costs of your water - if you set one up now it will spread any current amount you owe plus the charges for your future water equally over 12 monthly instalments.
• If your business is using less water, please send us a meter reading. This will help us update your account and ensure we bill you for the water you’ve used.  It’s best to send meter readings a month apart – but only take readings if it’s safe to.  Please call us on 0345 072 6072 to give us your meter reading. 
• If you’re thinking of cancelling your Direct Debit, please contact us first to see if we can help with our payment options.
• If you're a small to medium-sized business, you can also use our free online area, MyAccount, to view your bills, and review your contact information. If you haven’t signed up already, you can register here.
• Remember to monitor and assess the water pipework/equipment in your building. Even if you’ve not been using your business site(s) you’re still responsible for the health and safety of your water.
  Legionella is a risk that comes with premises not being used that you’ll want bear in mind.
  We’ve got information on this and other water tips for closed businesses on our website to consider as you plan to reopen.
• Watch out for water leaks - It’s easy for leaks to go unnoticed while your premises are vacant, or have far fewer people on site. If your meter readings show an unexpected water use over recent weeks, it’s a sign of a potential leak.
  If you suspect you have a leak on site, our Advanced Services team can support you and provide a quick identification and repair process – please contact them at advancedservices@water-plus.co.uk with all the relevant details.
• If you have restaurants – steps to take now, We have some specific advice on grease taps to consider on our website.
   

We’ll keep you informed and up to date

We’ll continue to update this web page on any further developments on what we and the industry are doing.

In case you haven’t seen the information, the Government has issued advice on financial support for employers and businesses. The Government is updating this page so it’s worth continuing to check their information and advice.