Why have my water bills increased recently?
The short answer
If nothing has changed about how you use water, a jump in a metered bill usually means a leak — and the most likely culprit is a loo quietly running into the pan. Other explanations are an estimated reading being corrected, a tariff change, more people in the house, or a hot summer of hosepipe and paddling pool.
Start with the meter, because it settles the question quickly. Turn everything off, read it, wait an hour or two without using any water, and read it again. Movement means a leak somewhere on your side of the meter.
If the meter is still, look at the bill itself. A run of estimated readings followed by a real one produces a nasty catch-up bill that looks exactly like a leak but isn't. So does a change of tariff, or a teenager discovering long showers.
If it is a leak, get it fixed and then talk to United Utilities, who supply every home in Macclesfield. They run a leak allowance that can credit some of the water you lost — but it comes with conditions worth knowing in advance. It's for metered customers, it's normally a once-only allowance for a first claim at that property, and they expect the leak to have been repaired within about 30 days of it being found. Leave it running for six months and you may find you've lost both the water and the credit.
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