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Compare NowBusiness Water for Offices
Most office water bills were priced for a five-day-a-week building. Then 2020 happened and occupancy fell off a cliff. Five years on, the standing charges, the dishwasher cycles and the WC volume assumptions still haven’t been re-cut for a workforce that’s in two days a week. We’ve seen a 200-desk London office still on its 2019 tariff because nobody told the retailer that half the staff went hybrid in 2021.
You can switch retailer. Offices have had that right in England since 2017. Most never have.
This page covers what an office actually pays for, where the line items hide overcharges, how the occupier-vs-landlord billing question works, and the three procurement routes a facilities manager can run a switch through. If you’re an asset owner rather than an occupier, the landlords page covers the asset-side angle including vacant unit billing and sub-meter accuracy.
- England’s non-household water market opened to competition on 1 April 2017 under the Water Act 2014.
- Around 20 retailers are licensed by Ofwat to supply offices, serviced-office portfolios and corporate occupiers.
- Wholesale supply still comes from regional water companies (Thames Water, Severn Trent, Yorkshire Water, and others).
- A typical 50-desk London office uses 350 to 500 m³ per year, with around 60% of that going through WCs and the kitchen.
- Hybrid working has cut average office water demand 25 to 40% since 2019, but most retailer tariffs were never re-banded to match.
- The three biggest savings levers: re-banding standing charges to current occupancy, validating surface drainage on the leased footprint only, and challenging fit-out and dilapidations flushing volume billed at full rate.
Why offices pay more for water than they should
A busy office cycles water through tea-point boilers, dishwashers, ice makers and back-of-house prep at a far higher rate per square metre than most commercial sites. That alone is fine — what isn’t fine is paying daily standing charges on a tariff that hasn’t been touched since the contract was signed, drainage charges on a forecourt that drains to a soakaway, and meter estimates that have been creeping up for two years.
Offices also tend to sit on tenanted commercial leases — the landlord is often named on the bill, but the operator is the one bleeding money. The retailer doesn’t volunteer corrections, and most office owners haven’t been told the market is competitive.
The five places offices overpay
| What’s going wrong | Why it costs you money |
|---|---|
| Standing charges unchanged since pre-hybrid occupancy fell | If your tariff hasn’t been re-papered since 2020, you’re paying a standing charge written for a 5-day full-occupancy office. Most hybrid-shifted offices can rebase the standing charge to the smaller actual demand. |
| Kitchen dishwasher and tea-point cycles on default tariff | Office kitchens typically use 30–40% of total water on dishwasher and boiler refills. On a default flat tariff, that consistent demand is overpriced versus a metered volume tier. |
| Fit-out and dilapidations flushing volume billed as production water | End-of-tenancy or pre-handover flushing pushes a one-off spike through the meter. Most retailers will quote a contractor rate if asked, none will offer it unprompted. |
| Leased-floor drainage charges on the whole-building footprint | Multi-tenant offices commonly carry surface drainage assumptions for the entire roof, even when only your floor is on the bill. The apportionment rarely matches lease rentable area. |
| Landlord-recharge with no sub-meter validation | If the landlord rebills water as a service charge, ask for the wholesaler’s actual readings. The recharge often includes empty floors or common-parts irrigation that should be apportioned, not absorbed. |
Can office portfolios and independent operators switch water supplier?
Yes, and the mechanism is different depending on who’s signing the contract.
An office is its own legal entity, so it can enter a water contract directly — no council approval needed. Multi-academy trusts can contract centrally for every office in the chain, which usually unlocks better volume pricing. Independent operators sign for their own site, with the contract in the trading entity’s name.
The 12 retailers below are all licensed by Ofwat to supply non-household water in England. Pricing, service, and hospitality-sector experience vary — most trusts shortlist three and go to a simple comparison exercise.
Routes to procurement
Three ways operators in this sector typically bring a new water contract in. Each comes with its own trade-off between control, effort and how sharp the price lands.
Serviced-office portfolios run pre-tendered utility frameworks across hundreds of locations, and IWFM-aligned facilities frameworks bundle water with electricity and gas. The unit rate is competitive on volume. The trade-off: framework deals rarely include the post-hybrid standing-charge rebase or the fit-out flushing repricing that makes the biggest difference per site.
Office water FAQs
We’ve gone hybrid since 2020. Does that change our water bill?
It should have. Most offices have lost 25 to 40% of their occupied-day volume since 2019. The metered consumption falls automatically, but the retailer won’t proactively re-cut your standing charge or re-band the contract. That conversation has to be initiated by the occupier or by a broker on your behalf.
Our landlord recharges water on a service charge. Can we still switch?
If you have your own meter and your own contract, yes. If you’re sub-metered off a landlord supply with the cost recharged through service charge, the lease is the answer. Most modern leases let occupiers contract directly when a sub-meter is installed.
What about the fit-out works coming up next quarter?
Notify the retailer in writing before the contractor turns the water on. Pipe flushing, pressure testing and dilapidations flushing can spike the meter by 50 to 200 m³ in a single month. With prior notice, that volume can often be re-classified rather than billed at full retail unit rate.
How do we end the contract when we leave the building?
The retailer needs a final meter read on the day you vacate, plus the new occupier’s details if known. Miss that and the meter keeps running on your account. End-of-tenancy notification failures are one of the most common sources of unexpected charges six months after a move-out.
What’s a sensible m³-per-FTE benchmark?
For a typical UK office with on-site kitchen and standard WC fit-out, 6 to 10 m³ per FTE per year is the working range. Above 12 and you’re either heavy on canteen use or there’s a leak. Below 4 and the building is probably mostly empty.
What does a free audit actually look at?
Three things at the same time. We compare the unit rate against the live market across all 12 retailers. We audit surface drainage, trade effluent and standing charges for historic billing errors that can be backdated up to six years. And we check whether the contract structure fits your actual usage profile better than the default. If we don’t recover anything, you don’t pay a fee.
How do I get a quote without committing?
Send a recent water bill. The SPID, annual cubic-metre volume and current retailer are all on it. We come back within two working days with a like-for-like alternative quote and a flag if anything looks worth auditing for historic refunds.
