Anglian Water has asked the UK's competition watchdog to allow it to raise bills over the next five years, even beyond the bills allowed so far, as it called the water regulator's ruling "unacceptable".

The Water Company serves 4.3 million customers in East England and Hartlepool, which has called on the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to support its initial business proposal to bring bills from £491 between 2025 and 2030 Increased to £649.

Anglian hopes to overturn the decision of water regulators to Ofwat in England and Wales, which lowered the proposal in December and said it should be allowed to raise customer bills by 29 per cent to £631 during this period.

OFWAT's ruling will allow Anglian to spend £1.1 billion over the next five years (£4 billion more than in the past five years), including projects on two new reservoirs in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire.

However, the company, seen as one of Ofwat's lagging performance companies, was hit in the decision, claiming that the company puts additional pressure on its business when it tries to invest in its water and sewage infrastructure.

“In the east of England, the UK has four fastest growing cities, as well as the Cambridge-Oxford arc, and the level of investment required is high,” said Anglia CEO Mark Thurston.

He added: “The designated goal of OFWAT is to align the interests of the company and investors with the interests of the customers by setting the appropriate balance of risk and return.”

“Unfortunately, after extremely careful consideration, the Anglia Water Authority concluded that Ofwat’s ultimate determination has not yet met its own goals and has incorporated nearly £100 million in efficiency savings, meaning regulatory solutions The extra pressure in it is unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, unacceptable, Thurston said.

Thames Water, a troubled Thames Water filed its own complaint against competition regulators last week, and Anglian's appeal to the CMA was a few days later.

Thames Water is on the verge of a financial collapse and hopes to raise its bills by 59% over the next five years and believes it needs additional funds to invest and improve its services. Ofwat approvals increased by 35%.

Neither attempt to appeal will affect the bill for the fiscal year that began in April, and Anglia said it will not postpone its investment plans for its full-year business plan.

Thurston said: “We won’t make this decision easily and seriously consider our clients and all other stakeholders, and we concluded that we must take advantage of the next step in the regulatory process and ask the CMA to reconsider it. Rights are rights or not. The balance has been hit."

Thurston, who has been the owner of the HS2 Railway Link until 2023, was also an executive at the 2012 Olympics in London, was appointed Anglian last year. Thurston made headlines on the high-speed rail project, the highest-paid civil servant with a revenue of 644,999r.

The CMA is under pressure from the Labor government's "growth" agenda. Its CEO Sarah Cardell told Guardian that the watchdog needs to "go further to make sure that perceptions of the regime do not have a chilling effect".