SOUTHERN Water, which supplies the New Forest council area, is putting up prices by three per cent.

It says the typical bill for a domestic customer is expected to be £436 in 2018-19 – up £11 from the year before.

Ian McAulay, chief executive of Southern Water, said: “We are committed to saving our customers money and this is clearly demonstrated by again keeping bills under the rate of inflation.

“At the same time between 2015-2020 we’re investing £1.8billion in our network to ensure it is fit for the future and keeps pace with growth in the south east.

“The way we work at Southern Water is to continually improve our services to help our customers save water and money. We were first to introduce a universal metering programme which has meant that 60 per cent of our customers are now better off and we’ve started an ambitious project called Target 100 which will help all our customers reduce their water usage to 100 litres a day by 2040, saving on average £75 per year.”

The company says that, until 2020, it will be spending £80m above its existing plan to “future proof” its network.

This will include spending £2m repairing supply pipes on customer properties, finding incorrectly plumbed waste pipes, reducing sewer flooding in 10 towns and cities, and redeveloping the Woolston waste water treatment works in Southampton.