Best Consumer Campaign
Don’t Pay for Dirty Water / Boycott Water Bills
Whitstable Boycott Water Bills co-founder Julie Wassmer (right) has withheld payment since 2021, and vows to fight court action.
Sick of sewage and paying water companies to pollute our waterways, they stopped paying. Extinction Rebellion and Boycott Water Bills teamed up to support others joining the UK-wide sewerage bill boycott.
The Campaign
Water companies in England and Wales continue to hike bills whilst an increasing volume of untreated sewage is being discharged —3.6 million hours in 2024, up from 1.7 million in 2022. Since privatisation, these companies have paid £85 billion to shareholders. Customers are paying for pollution while profits soar. BoycottWaterBills.com launched in May 2023, followed by Extinction Rebellion’s Don’t Pay for Dirty Water (#DP4DW) campaign in November 2023. Together, their campaigns raised public awareness about the scale of sewage pollution and built grassroots resistance to an unjust billing system. Boycott Water Bills provided resources and practical guidance for those considering withholding payments. Don’t Pay for Dirty Water proactively encouraged boycott action, and established WhatsApp groups in every water company region, enabling participants to share experiences and endeavours, and build solidarity. Working collaboratively, the campaigns reached far more people than they could have alone, amplifying public resistance and demanding accountability.
Don’t Pay For Dirty Water founder Caz Dennett (far left) with boycotters and supporters from Weymouth and Portland, Dorset.
Founder, Don’t Pay For Dirty Water
The Change
The campaign has drawn widespread attention across UK media, making national headlines and major TV public interest programmes. Awareness surged in the lead-up to the 2024 general election. Voters pressed candidates to act on sewage pollution and water bills. On his first day, newly appointed Secretary of State for Environment Steve Reid announced that improving water company performance would be a government priority. Fuelled by anger and frustration, thousands of customers have taken a simple but powerful action – stopping payments. The boycott has disrupted cash flow to water companies, amplified public pressure, and signalled that systemic change is necessary and inevitable.
Many participants have successfully withheld payments for 12–48 months without legal action. Water companies are not allowed to cut off most domestic households. Those who have tested the legal system through Small Claims or County Court have exposed the Water Industry Act 1991 as wholly unfit for purpose, offering virtually no redress for customers, even in the face of raw sewage discharges. These insights and experiences now fuel the campaign’s next phase: deepening its reach, escalating its demands on water companies and the Government, and building alliances with those that do have the power to challenge the system from within.
The Future
DPDW and Boycott Water Bills are growing the campaign, reaching and supporting more people to take the simple but powerful step of withholding sewage charge payments. They refuse to keep funding pollution.
They plan to ramp up pressure on water companies, regulators like Ofwat and the Environment Agency, and politicians, to change the system. A Citizens’ Assembly on Water is long overdue.
Meanwhile they will push MPs to fix the Water Industry Act so customers have real rights, and a legal defence when services fail. They’ll also explore how Local Authorities (Councils), who have legal powers, can take action too. They won’t stop until we achieve a fairer system, for people and for nature.
