As Thames Water teeters on the edge of temporary nationalization, payers face the prospect of a 40% rise in prices to cope with the company’s damaging debt.

Britain’s largest water company is saddled with £14.7bn of debt and shareholders have refused to provide £500m of extra funding to improve its poor environmental performance and tackle leaks and sewage overflows.

The company said it hopes to agree a scheme with regulator Ofwat that is “affordable for customers, deliverable and bankable for Thames Water and investable for equity investors” of”.

The plans could mean Thames Water tariffs will rise by 40% by 2030 to help infrastructure investment – and the average British household already faces relatively high water bills compared with Europe.

According to the British Water Association, the average household water bill in England and Wales is around £448 per year, although this can vary depending on usage, location and different water companies.

Households in European countries such as Spain, France and the Netherlands pay lower water bills.

However, households in England and Wales still pay less than the US average, where a family of four is likely to pay around $876 or £692 a year on their home water bill. This can also vary significantly based on U.S. usage and location.

In Australia, the average household water bill is comparable to that in the UK. The estimated annual cost for a family of four is A$868, or £448.19. However, in the capital Sydney, the average bill is estimated at A$1,061.59 (£548.25).

Tariffs vary widely in Europe. For residents living in the Norwegian capital Oslo, the average household water bill is 8,272 kroner, or £603.40.

Tuition fees in France are approximately €490, slightly below the UK average and equivalent to approximately £418 per year.

Water prices vary widely in different regions of Spain, but the average household water bill for a household in Madrid is €253, which is approximately £216.11.

The average living water bill for an Italian household is around €444 or £379.26, so expect to spend slightly more.

The average annual water bill for a family of four in the Netherlands is approximately €328.15, equivalent to £280.30.

Below the equator in Chile, water bills have also fallen – with the average annual water bill for a household being around $240, or about £189 a year.