Price gouging is a form of fraud by deception and often involves overbearing corporate power and intimidation, and even coercion and extortion, especially by a monopoly supplier where customers have no other choice (in this case, wastewater removal).

There are very real and justifiable fears that, unchecked, Southern Water will continue to hyper-inflate customer bills each and every year, taking typical combined annual bills for water supply and wastewater removal  to £1,000 or even far higher (not the fanciful £642 quoted by Ofwat) by 2029-30.

Some lawyers may argue that Southern Water is not really price gouging, since its price rises have been approved by Ofwat and not challenged or adversely adjudicated by the Competition & Markets Authority. In fact, Southern Water simply ignored Ofwat’s PR24 bills formula, imposed its own much higher charges, and then succeeded in persuading the CMA to allow an additional 3%!

Unless and until there are any determinations by courts or relevant authorities against Southern Water and its executives on such matters, the price gouging question remains officially undecided.

Whatever the pedantic legal niceties, to millions of Southern Water customers it feels like price gouging. Further, why on earth would the Government, Ofwat, the CMA and CCW want to sanctify Southern Water’s shameful conduct and make it appear that they are colluding in it?

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