Geographical differences in water charges

Cardew

We get many posts on this forum giving a firm recommendation for changing to a metered tariff rather than staying on an un-metered tariff. Many of these posts base their recommendations solely on their own experience and on the assumption that the same conditions apply across Great Britain.

Looking at the tariffs of some water supply companies it is very apparent that the structure of charges varies considerably, some giving a much bigger incentive to change to a metered tariff than others.

Prompted by another thread that is currently running I compared the charges for Southern Water and the zone of Severn Trent where I live.

I compared metered and unmetered charges for a house with a Rateable Value of £300(which is about average) and metered charges for 180 cubic meters(which is average for a household with 3 people)

With Southern Water you would pay £440 unmetered and £438 metered

With Severn Trent you would pay £510 unmetered and £375* unmetered

So obviously there is a far bigger saving for switching to a meter with ST

I didn't do the calculation for other water companies but I believe there are even bigger differences.

* For a Semi-Detached house, £351 for a flat/terrace, £399 for detached

oldwiring

Dare I say it? The water issue is even more muddied, bcause many properties are billed separately for water supply and wastewater & drainage. I have experienced this in my previous dwelling- Mid Kent Water/ Southern Water and now Bournemouth & West Hants/Wessex Water. The situation in ot uncommon.

deanos

IF you are on the borders yes you can have 1 company supply water and another take it away.

If this is the case you will only get a meter from the supplying company and pay one bill to them as the sewage part will be passed on automatically by the water co to the other water co. on your behalf

oldwiring

deanos wrote:

IF you are on the borders yes you can have 1 company supply water and another take it away.

If this is the case you will only get a meter from the supplying company and pay one bill to them as the sewage part will be passed on automatically by the water co to the other water co. on your behalf

If you look at the map pn http://www.southernwater.co.uk/corporate/aboutUs/areaOfOperation.asp
I wouls suggest your referecne to border area is a tad misplaced. I would hardly say MidKent, for example was at the borfer, would you?:D

deanos

Blimey that is mixed up a bit, i thought they only were dual companys on the water companys borders, it is where i am anyway

oldwiring

Well my local water company is in at leat two wastewater areas!

I see Severn TYrent has variable charges for unmetred properties, adjusted to reflect the difference in RV for similar properties over its extnsive area. IMHO it show what a nonsense charging under RV is, Over all metered is much more logical.

Cardew

oldwiring wrote:

Well my local water company is in at leat two wastewater areas!

I see Severn TYrent has variable charges for unmetred properties, adjusted to reflect the difference in RV for similar properties over its extnsive area. IMHO it show what a nonsense charging under RV is, Over all metered is much more logical.

Agreed

Made worse by the stupidity of the old RV system, which gave a high RV to (then)modern houses and allowed some huge old old houses to keep very low RVs.