Complaints against Severn Trent Water fall by more than a quarter

Shropshire's water supplier is now the second-best performing water company in England and Wales for the number of complaints it receives after a 27.8 per cent decline in 2015-16.

It now receives 24.2 complaints per 10,000 connections, fewer than half of the 48.8 it was racking up in 2011-12, the report from the Consumer Council for Water shows.

The industry as a whole has experienced a decline in the number of people complaining about their water supplies – down from 53.2 per 10,000 connections to 33.7 over the same five-year period.

But the figures aren't universally positive, and Dwr Cymru Welsh Water – which supplies some parts of Mid Wales – saw a spike in complaints last year, after a rise from 21.4 per 10,000 connections to 45.8 in a single year.

In doing so, it became the first company since 2008 to see complaints more double in a single year.

And while the long-term trend is for falling complaint numbers, nearly half of water companies across England and Wales saw an increase in written customer complaints in 2015-16, with some recording "alarming" surges, the watchdog said.

Dwr Cymru was asked to report back by the end of October to explain what it is doing to drive down complaints, along with three other companies which were criticised in the report – Southern Water, Bournemouth Water and Affinity Water.

In total, Severn Trent received 10,532 complaints, of which 56 per cent were about billing or charges, 19.5 per cent were about the water service, 14 per cent were about sewerage services, and 3.5 per cent were about metering, with the rest a miscellaneous range of issues.

Professor Bernard Crump, Central and Eastern chair for the Consumer Council for Water, said: "What is most pleasing is that both Severn Trent Water and South Staffs Water have maintained a downward trend in complaints over several years.

"That shows a commitment by both companies to keep improving their services for customers and resolve problems quickly and effectively when things do go wrong."

Across the industry, billing and charges were the biggest areas of complaint, accounting for just over 60 per cent of complaints to companies in 2015-16. This category includes liability for charges, prices and debt recovery.