Water Charges

leftieM

Did anyone see the news last night? It said privatisation will be introduced as early as one year after the first bills are issued.
Come on - this is more than an argument about paying fair amounts for public services, this is about selling a public utility to a private company who will have a monoploy. The news was full all summer of stories about the english water companies and how they make record profits but continuously under-invest in the infrastructure (by the standards set by of Ofwat). Ofwat then fine them and they pass the cost on to the customer. And what choice does the customer have? None.
This is the point at which we can stop it. Then when we have stopped privatisation we will have the luxury of arguing about who pays for what. So drop the pedantic arguments. If we allow privatisation 'fairness' won't come into it.

zax_2

Personally I think it's only fair to be paying for water.
BUT.....
*I don't want to be paying based on my house worth. That's stupid. Place a meter to make sure I am paying for what I am using,
*reduce the amount of rates I pay to reflect the water charges part of it
*increase state pension by the average house hold water charges (why should the pension stay the same when we are required by law to pay more for living expenses).
*Insure that once we start paying for it and put money in to the system to refurbish it that the government wont sell the water service to a private concern that will benefit from our tax money expenditure on the infrastructure.

bakkah

If everyone runs their taps and the water system breaks and sewage is overloaded then they wont be able to make you pay as the service will be broken, although talk about cutting nose off despite face. Feel bad just thinking that one from an environmental point of view, consumer activism of a sort but at too high a cost, they would be quick to want to install metering then though.

And that is the biggest issue for me, the lack of metering means the system is not fair, I'm not going to pay the same as a family of 4/5 in the same size of house when I live by myself and am hardly ever in the house. If they installed metering then people would be more conscientious of their personal usage and take measures to reduce it which would ease the load on the system and the environment.

Colin_Kee

To True Bakkah. From my experience in the south of England, I found that people blatently disregarded the hose pipe bans, as did I. The way I looked at it, I'm paying the same price for the bloody stuff, hose pipe ban or not, so I watered away at my garden (Under the cover of darkness). Not very environmently conscious I know but if I was using less they weren't going to charge me less. (And besides the grass has rights too!!)

Parisien

fwoodles wrote:

Is this the quote you're after?

"Red" Ken Livingston : "If voting changed anything, they'd abolish it"

(also the title of a book by him ISBN: 0002177706)
But I've niggling thought that there is another similar one out there.....

Gee...not sure Ken was that bright/original....!! I'll ask my mate who it was!

Parisien

"The populous argument that says water charges are already built into the rates holds absolutely no merit"

Not the point I tried to make Ivan, which was when the last reformed house rates here in 97/98, we were explicitly told as a region that, if we argreed the change, we would not ever have to pay separate water rates..................this has now changed, yet another government has reneged on a promise, its a matter of principle too, whilst our pathetic versions of politicians squander fortunes of our money doing nothing, T Blair et al ( see my rant bout more wasted money above) creep in here and mug us for more money, whilst withdrawing expnditure from NI coffers which are so badly needed.

Has water provision been improved since being privatised in parts of the UK........a clear and simple NO...so why is it being foisted unto us?

Meanwhile the french owners re-patriate many hundreds of millions of pounds back into french coffers!!

I DONT LIKE BEING TAKEN FOR A MUG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

zax_2

Parisien wrote:

"........................whilst our pathetic versions of politicians squander fortunes of our money doing nothing, ......................

its not them that are pathetic but us who vote them in time after time.

IvanOpinion

Parisien wrote:

Not the point I tried to make Ivan, which was when the last reformed house rates here in 97/98, we were explicitly told as a region that, if we argreed the change, we would not ever have to pay separate water rates.................

The alternative is to increase the multiplier and build it back into the new rates .. just up the multiplier from 0.6 (or whatever it will be to the required figure). However those that pay will pay more because it is likely that fewer people will have to pay rates than will have to make a contribution to the water charges.

.this has now changed, yet another government has reneged on a promise,

... not exactly anything new there then ... policies are made, policies are revoked ... the promises were made last century we need something new for the 21st century and beyond.

its a matter of principle too, whilst our pathetic versions of politicians squander fortunes of our money doing nothing, T Blair et al ( see my rant bout more wasted money above) creep in here and mug us for more money, whilst withdrawing expnditure from NI coffers which are so badly needed.

I believe Northern Ireland is still subsidised from the mainland

Has water provision been improved since being privatised in parts of the UK........a clear and simple NO...so why is it being foisted unto us?

A very good point .. but hat is the alternative ... leave it in the hands of a bloated inefficient civil service that has allowed the system to be run down through no investment.

I DONT LIKE BEING TAKEN FOR A MUG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nor do I but we either finance the building of a new infrastructure for the next generation or we live with a dteriorating system that we currently have (and probably have nothing to leave the next generation except an even bigger mess).

ivan

ginger_nuts

is there anything we can do to reduce the water charges or the water useage

Thriftylady

I agree that if we have to pay separately for water, then it should be metered - I have a neighbour who thinks nothing of spending an entire day each weekend (yes, an entire day) power-hosing his two cars, two vans, his caravan, his driveway, his house and anything else that sits still long enough. I'd say he uses as much in a day I do in a month.

But, I have one big reservation. I recycle where possible but before you can put anything in the recycle box it has to be washed. If I'm being charged for my water based on use then I'd be better off binning the stuff instead. Similarly I use washable nappies, so obviously I'm using extra water, but in doing so I'm saving my council money on landfill (and arguably doing my bit for the environment, although thats not really the issue here). In theory I'd say that water use should be balanced against the amount of household waste produced, so that no one is punished for recycling or whatever, but realistically I'd say thats impossible.