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How business water works for churches
A church is a non-household customer, the same as a shop, a school or an office. There is no household tariff for a place of worship, and it is billed by a business water supplier.
Most churches are metered. The rest are billed on the rateable value of the building or on an assessed volume, and in both cases the business water rates on the bill split into a wholesale element fixed by region and a retail element set by the business water supplier.
Can churches switch water supplier?
Yes, in England and Scotland. English churches have been able to switch business water suppliers since the deregulation of the British water market in 2017, and Scotland has been open since 2008.
Switching changes who bills you and the retail element you pay. The wholesaler for your region stays the same and still sets the wholesale charges, so nothing changes on site.
Average church water consumption
The National Churches Trust found in its 2025 survey that 87% of UK church buildings are now on mains water, up from 66% in 2010. Toilets, kitchens and community activities have been added to buildings that were never designed to have them, and water use has risen with them.
Understanding where the water goes is the first step to controlling business water rates at your church, particularly in a building that stands empty for most of the week.
Church water consumption
Water use in a church is low and comes in bursts. The benchmarks below assume a building in use five days a week, so a church open a few hours a week will use less than this.
A 400 square metre building measured against the floor area yardstick would come to around 220 cubic metres a year, and most churches use a fraction of that.
| Measure | Typical figure | What it means for a church |
|---|---|---|
| Buildings with toilets and hand basins only | Around 25 to 30 litres per full-time staff member a day | The starting point for a church with no kitchen in regular use |
| Buildings where food is prepared on site | Up to 40 litres per full-time staff member a day | Applies where the hall kitchen is used for community meals |
| Floor area check, building in use five days a week | Around 0.55 cubic metres per square metre a year | A church open a few hours a week should be well below this |
| Water use per person a day, building in regular use | Around 15 litres | Above this, water is usually being wasted somewhere |
Source: Church of Scotland, Net Zero Pathway water guidance, citing Zero Waste Scotland
Where churches use the most water
A church has a washroom, usually a kitchen, and almost nothing else that uses water.
Toilets are typically the biggest draw, and the kitchen tap comes second on the days the building is open to a group.
| Use | Typical share of water use | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Toilets and urinals | Largest | Services, weddings, funerals, hall lettings and community groups |
| Hand basins | Second largest | Short bursts around the same events |
| Kitchen or servery | Third largest | Coffee mornings, community meals, foodbank sessions and toddler groups, in the 64% of churches that have one |
| Cleaning | Small | Floors, washrooms and kitchen surfaces |
| Churchyard, garden and planters | Small and seasonal | Outside taps used for grave flowers and summer watering |
Water charges for churches
A church water bill covers two services: the water supplied to the building and the wastewater taken away, each with its own volumetric rate and standing charge.
Which lines appear depends on the region and on how the site drains, so two similar churches in different parts of the country pay different amounts. These are the lines that usually appear on a church bill.
- Water supply: A charge for every cubic metre recorded by the meter, plus a standing charge set by meter size. Most churches are on the smallest meter a wholesaler offers.
- Wastewater: A charge on the wastewater assumed to return to the sewer, plus its own standing charge. Wholesalers typically assume around 95% of the water supplied comes back.
- Surface water drainage: Charged in some regions on the site area that drains to a public sewer, which counts the roof, the paths and the churchyard. Treatment varies: Severn Trent charges a place of religious worship on a notional rateable value of zero rather than on site area, and where no rainwater reaches a public sewer the charge stops and can be refunded back up to six years.
- Highway drainage: A separate fixed charge in some regions for rainwater running off public roads. It applies wherever the premises are connected to the public sewer.
- Assessed or unmeasured charges: Where no meter is fitted, charges run off the rateable value of the building or an assessed volume. Plenty of older churches are still billed this way, so the bill has little to do with actual use.
Can a church claim a drainage concession?
Where surface water drainage is charged on site area, a church can face a charge out of proportion to what it uses, because the roof, the paths and the churchyard all count towards the area. Several wholesalers run a concession for community groups that caps it.
United Utilities caps surface water and highway drainage charges for places of public religious worship at its lowest site area band, and a successful claim can be backdated up to six years, church halls included.
Claims go through the retailer that bills you, with evidence that the building is registered under the Places of Worship Registration Act 1855 or otherwise meets the scheme criteria. Some places of worship have already been put on the concession without applying, so check the bill before you start.
Source: United Utilities, Surface Water and Highway Drainage Concessionary Scheme for Community Groups
Reducing water bills for churches
Wholesale charges change every April, and a business water price increase reaches every site in the region, whatever contract it holds. What a church controls is its contract and how the site is classified, and both take more off the business water bills than any behaviour change.
Below, we cover the main ways a church can reduce what it pays.
Moving off default rates
Churches in England and Scotland can choose their water retailer. Most have never moved and are on the regional default business water tariff, the rate a site ends up paying when nobody has ever asked for anything better. Our experts can compare business water suppliers and quote for a contract that matches how your church uses water.
Claiming on surface water drainage
Where rainwater from the roof, paths and churchyard soaks away or runs to a watercourse rather than into a public sewer, surface water drainage charges may not apply, and claims can be backdated in some regions.
Charity exemption in Scotland
A church in Scotland registered as a charity can apply once a year for the Water and Sewerage Charges Exemption Scheme. Income under £200,000 usually means no water or wastewater charges at all; income between £200,000 and £300,000 usually means 50% off the wholesale charge; and above £300,000 there is no support.
Checking the bill is right
Meter readings, meter size and the chargeable site area recorded against the building can be wrong. A water bill validation check compares what was billed with what the site should have paid, water bill consolidation makes errors easier to spot across a parish with several buildings, and knowing how to submit a meter reading stops estimates piling up in the first place.
Improving water efficiency for churches
A church uses water in short bursts, on service days, at weddings and funerals, and whenever a group hires the hall. Most of the waste happens when nobody is in the building to notice it. Here are five ways a church can reduce water consumption, and if you are not sure where to start, a business water audit will show you exactly where the water is going.
Urinal flushing
Older urinal cisterns fill and flush on a timer all day, every day, including the six days a week the building may be locked. A control that only lets the cistern refill after somebody has used the washroom stops water from flushing away into an empty church.
Replace old cisterns
A cistern installed before 1999 typically uses around 11 litres per flush against about 6 litres in a modern one, and many church toilets have not been touched since the day they went in. Replacing the cistern, or fitting a bag that displaces part of the water in it, cuts every flush at Christmas, Easter, weddings and funerals.
Fit taps that shut off
The outside tap in a churchyard is used by people tending graves and is often left running for days before anyone spots it. A tap that closes on its own once it is released fixes that, and the same fitting suits a hall kitchen used by a different group every week.
Turn the water off when closed
Churches that close over winter, or shut for repairs, sit with water in the pipes for weeks with nobody visiting. Turning the supply off at the stop tap during those closures means a failed cistern or a split pipe cannot run for a whole quarter before the bill arrives.
Cut kitchen water use
A servery running coffee mornings and community meals gets through far more water than a service day does, especially where crockery is washed under a running tap. Running a dishwasher only when it is full, and using a tap fitting that mixes air into the flow so less water does the same job, brings the kitchen back into line.
Water supply options for churches
Almost every church buys all of its water from the mains, and for a building used a few hours a week that is usually the right answer. These are the options that fit a church site where it is not.
Mains water
A mains water connection is the only supply that meets drinking water standards without treatment, which matters where the kitchen serves tea, coffee and meals to the public. Around a quarter of rural churches still have no mains water, and a connection is the first step before a toilet or servery can go in.
Rainwater collection
A church roof is large in relation to the building’s water use, so commercial rainwater harvesting or butts on the downpipes can cover toilet flushing and outdoor watering without treatment. Cast iron downpipes and listed fabric make alterations difficult, and harvested water has to be kept completely separate from the drinking supply under the water fitting regulations.
Borehole or abstraction
A borehole water supply or taking water from a stream suits a large rural site with land of its own, and taking more than 20 cubic metres a day needs a licence from the Environment Agency. Drilling, treating, and testing costs are unlikely to be recovered at church volumes, so water abstraction is worth considering only where the site already has a source and no mains connection.
Reusing water inside the building
Greywater systems collect water from basins and reuse it for flushing, which works in buildings that produce wastewater every day. A church produces very little for most of the week, so there is rarely enough to justify the plant and the maintenance.
Water monitoring for churches
A single water meter at the boundary gives one number for the whole site, which is little help where a church, a hall and a let space share a supply. Submetering, or fitting water loggers or smart water meters, separates them and shows use hour by hour.
- Flow when the building is empty: A church should read close to nothing at three in the morning on a Tuesday, so steady flow at that hour points to commercial water leaks or a cistern that never stops filling.
- Which part of the site costs the most: Separate readings for the church, the hall, and any let space show which building has the biggest impact on the bill, and whether hirers should be contributing more.
- Evidence for a claim: Dated readings support an application for a sewerage rebate or a corrected chargeable area, and a water meter calculator turns them into an annual volume you can check the bill against.