28 November 2012 Last updated at 10:07 ET

South West Water customers to get £50 yearly discount

The average bill for SWW customers is about £540 per household a year

Customers of South West Water (SWW) are to be given a yearly £50 discount from April, the company says.

SWW said the discount would automatically appear in people's bills every April until at least 2020.

The government-funded discount is to cover the extra cost of cleaning up South West England's bathing waters.

Bills for SWW customers - in Devon and Cornwall, plus parts of Dorset and Somerset - are about £150 higher than the national average, at about £540.

Last March, MPs agreed to legislation meaning a £400m government subsidy for SWW.

Since privatisation in 1989, SWW bills have risen steadily to help pay for Operation Clean Sweep - a £2bn investment programme to improve beach water quality and revamp the region's sewage system.