Water bills

mb0011

Can anyone explain why the cost of water varies so much within the Thames Water regions.

For example, a home in South Oxfordshire will be charged 104.39p per cubic meter for supply of its water, while a home in Westminster is charged at nearly half that rate of 56.95p per cubic meter.

Electricity and gas companies don't have such regional variations.


Michael.

Gothicfairy

Depends on which water company they are with as they set their own prices.

It is like saying Eon is the same as Npower..they are different companies with different charges.

Mrs_Arcanum

Gothicfairy wrote: »

Depends on which water company they are with as they set their own prices.

It is like saying Eon is the same as Npower..they are different companies with different charges.

Thames Water covers London as well as Oxfordshire.

OFWAT Map

Gothicfairy

Well then the price would be the same as it is the water company that set the price per cubic meter rather then anything else..But that is not to say there is more then one water company covering that area as in the Midlands where you can have : Severn Trent, Anglian and even Thames or Welsh water depending on your supply area.

Mrs_Arcanum

mb0011 wrote: »

Can anyone explain why the cost of water varies so much within the Thames Water regions.

For example, a home in South Oxfordshire will be charged 104.39p per cubic meter for supply of its water, while a home in Westminster is charged at nearly half that rate of 56.95p per cubic meter.

Electricity and gas companies don't have such regional variations.


Michael.

I am wondering if they get a separate waste water charge in London? Maybe this will be why the rates are different.

mb0011

Thames Water prices do differ for both supply and waste, dependent on location of the supply - have a look at Thames Water prices leaflet online to confirm the huge variations (couldn't post a link, sorry).

Can't really understand this.

Cardew

mb0011 wrote: »

Can anyone explain why the cost of water varies so much within the Thames Water regions.

For example, a home in South Oxfordshire will be charged 104.39p per cubic meter for supply of its water, while a home in Westminster is charged at nearly half that rate of 56.95p per cubic meter.

Electricity and gas companies don't have such regional variations.


Michael.

I believe you are confused between Metered and Unmetered charges.

The 56.95p for Westminster is not the charge per cubic metre. It is for someone on an an unmetered tariff and the 56.95p is the charge per £1 of the Rateable Value(RV) on the 2012/13 charges

So if someone had an RV of, say, £400 they would pay 400 x 56.95p = £227.80.

On an unmetered tariff there are many variations by district with all water companies.

The RV is the notional rent the property would have obtained when the property was assessed which was generally in 1973 and certainly no later than 1990.

It is a pretty fair bet that a property in Westminster would have commanded a far higher rent than South Oxfordshire.

mb0011

Cardew

Thank you - you are correct, the unit supply price for metered customers is the same, wherever they live in the Thames Water region.

For unmetered customers, the price is determined by the rateable value of the property, multiplied by a 'rate per pound of rateable value' determined by the location of the property. This latter figure varies from 56.95p to 104.39p for the supply of the water.

I still can not understand why a property in South Oxfordshire should be charged at a rate almost twice that of a property in Westminster - is this to compensate for the higher rateable values of London properties?

Gothicfairy

Ahh ok so we are talking RV..

The RV is meant to be set so that everyone in the country pays around the same rate..so a low RV area might be set at a higher price to make it the same as their neighbourhood.

It often does not work though and you can find neighbour to neighbour paying different amounts for the same property let alone estate / area to estate / area

Cardew

mb0011 wrote: »

Cardew

Thank you - you are correct, the unit supply price for metered customers is the same, wherever they live in the Thames Water region.

For unmetered customers, the price is determined by the rateable value of the property, multiplied by a 'rate per pound of rateable value' determined by the location of the property. This latter figure varies from 56.95p to 104.39p for the supply of the water.

I still can not understand why a property in South Oxfordshire should be charged at a rate almost twice that of a property in Westminster - is this to compensate for the higher rateable values of London properties?

The whole RV system was something of a(bad) joke as a means of assessing properties for 'local taxation'; and bear in mind that the last general assessment in England and Wales was in 1973.

As stated earlier the RV was the notional rental figure the property could command. This depended on several factors - size, area, facilities and 'Mod Cons in 1973'(garage, Central heating, inside toilet, double glazing etc etc)

I know of huge unmodernised mansions with acres of land and stables that had a notional RV of £50. This is because few people would want to rent these cold houses and have the upkeep etc. I had a house built in 1988 and because it had all the 'mod cons' it had a RV of £700.

The mansions are now Band H for council tax and worth £millions, yet their water charges are still based on the £50 RV.(about £100pa) Had I not got a meter at the earliest opportunity I would be paying over £1,400.

As I stated in the earlier post, rents in Westminster were far higher than South Oxford and of course the density of housing in Westminster is far higher.

jimjames

I'm not sure about the specifics for Thames but for some water companies the tariff charges are historic and based on the companies that existed prior to mergers and OFWAT insist that the tariffs continue to reflect those previous company boundaries. It can be very unclear as a customer which tariff zone you are in as they refer back to companies that may not have existed for 15 years or more.

I know for one water company in England that consists of 5 different regions, all with their own tariffs based on old company boundaries but now all billed under the same company banner. The same may apply to Thames if the areas were previously different tariff zones.