The customers of South West Water are set to see their water bills come down by £50 a year from 2013 due to a new subsidy.

The move has been confirmed by the Consumer Council for Water and South West Water and is to me announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne on Tuesday.

The move will cost the government about £35m a year and will bring relief to the households in Devon and Cornwall, who were seeing higher than average water bills.

The average South West Water bills are £517, which is about £157 more than the national average. The subsidy, which comes after a review by civil servant Anna Walker into the affordability of water and sewerage charges, will share some burden of the customers. South West Water has said that the extra cost is due to the high costs of cleaning up bathing water.

Monica Read of SWW said: "It will make a significant difference because it recognizes the additional cost the region has borne in cleaning up the bathing beaches. It means that 3% of the nation's population has been responsible for cleaning up 30% of the bathing beaches."

Charles Howeson, chairman of the regional Consumer Council for Water has welcomes the move and said that the £50 per annum figure is appropriate.