The company says the “main factor” behind the average 2.4 per cent increase for its 74,000 business customers is the £14 million rise in property rates it will incur following a revaluation of all local business rates last year.
The increase is the first rise in three years by NI Water, and follows two years of reducing bills. It will result the typical unmetered bill increasing by £16 per year. The smallest bill increase will be £4, while the largest measured company will see bills increase by £45.
The company said the increases would have been larger if “significant sustainable cost efficiencies” had not been made over the last two price control periods (PC10 and PC13) and set out for the next period (PC15).
This includes making efficiency savings of £22 million over the next six years, but NI Water said this will not involve it making redundancies.
The company has already cut a third of its workforce since 2007 and remains locked in negotiations with unions over a pension’s dispute that led to industrial action over the winter.
NI Water director of finance and regulation, Ronan Larkin said: “We are conscious that economic conditions continue to be difficult for our customers and so we have worked hard to minimise any increase in tariffs for our customers, insofar as we have been able to.
“It is worth noting business customers will still be paying 5.6 per cent less, on average, for their water and sewerage services than they were in 2012.”