MSE News: Compulsory water meters to be installed in thousands of homes

John_Pierpoint

FGNUK wrote: »

Time to take re-nationalize all utilities. If this decision is made, you guarantee it's been made based upon the water suppliers making additional profit, it has diddly squat to do with water stocks.

.........and exactly who owned the companies who were still using leaking 100 year old Victorian metal pipes, when blue welded plastic piping had been invented?

The answer is simple. The accountants had done the sums, it is cheaper in the short run to leave the pipes leaking because their contents are cheap; so "kick the problem down the road".
Have you noticed the politicians doing the same with the little local difficulty of the deficits worldwide.

[Compare this with the same problem in the gas industry: The contents of the pipes is much more valuable. Oh and coincidently if those Victorian pipes are left leaking, there is a nasty big bang, sooner rather than later].

Cardew

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

.........and exactly who owned the companies who were still using leaking 100 year old Victorian metal pipes, when blue welded plastic piping had been invented?

The answer is simple. The accountants had done the sums, it is cheaper in the short run to leave the pipes leaking because their contents are cheap; so "kick the problem down the road".
Have you noticed the politicians doing the same with the little local difficulty of the deficits worldwide.

[Compare this with the same problem in the gas industry: The contents of the pipes is much more valuable. Oh and coincidently if those Victorian pipes are left leaking, there is a nasty big bang, sooner rather than later].

Agreed.

All the water companies would happilly take on tens of thousands of extra staff and prioritise stopping leaks.

The cost? - not a worry, just increase charges by xx%. Water companies are in a win/win situation.

John_Pierpoint

Ah but that does not count as government spending - so the foreign investors who are keeping this deficit country afloat won't panic and turn us into Greece.

Unless a regulator wakes up identifies excess profits and forces these monopolists to cut prices? While we are at it lets force then to replace huge Victorian flushing toilets with those ones that tend to leave a "floater" behind?

The government has never been very good at scoring brownie points for admitting that their own managers are doing a poor job.
Just look at the really efficient spending in the military.

Thames Water has hit its Ofwat-agreed annual leakage-reduction target for the past six years running (2006 to 2012), exceeding its goal for 2011/12 by more than 30 million litres a day. The company has done this by replacing 1,600 miles of worn-out Victorian pipes, mainly under London, reducing leakage from its 20,000-mile network of water pipes to its lowest-ever level, down more than a third since its peak in 2004.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Water

Cardew

platanincau1981 wrote: »

I don't have a meter and I wouldn't want one. Water is one thing no-one can live without. I have 2 kids and do thing like using the washing machine at least twice a day seven days a week if not more. As many other things that water is needed for. Water is the one thing that should not be metered.

Sadly it is metered - mandatory for all properties built over the last 23 years.

The aim is that eventually all properties will be metered; which is the fairest way of charging.

Also when metered there is a lower consumption of water.

macman

platanincau1981 wrote: »

I don't have a meter and I wouldn't want one. Water is one thing no-one can live without. I have 2 kids and do thing like using the washing machine at least twice a day seven days a week if not more. As many other things that water is needed for. Water is the one thing that should not be metered.

Agreed, but how does having a meter prevent you having water? It simply asks you to pay for your actual consumption.
The UK is AFAIK the only country in Europe that does not have universal metering?