MSE News: Water bills to fall 2% over the next year in England and Wales

Former_MSE_Paloma

Water and sewerage bills in England and Wales will fall by an average of 2%, or £9 after April, Water UK has announced ...

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Water bills to fall 2% over the next year in England and Wales




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statex

I switched last year only 2 of us. If you do not use any water you will save money but if you want to water your garden wash the car or like baths you wont. Also if there are more than 3 people in the house you will not save. I used the shower to bathe, did not always flush the loo, no baths and set up a waste water and rain water recycling system to water the garden and I would have saved about £100 per year. However when there is a dry period I ran out of stored water my storage capacity was 250 gallons.

I soon switched back to a fixed charge.If you water the garden for 1 hour per week it will cost you £2.50. The big CON is the sewerage charges when you are on a meter. I saved all the grey water but I was paying sewerage charges on that water.

However if you use say 2 cubic metres of water per week you will pay a sewerage charge ( £1.25 per metre) on that 2 metres. When you water the garden or wash the car or save grey water, although the water is not waste and does not go down the drain you are paying for it as though you were.

I am moving later this year and will have a deep well drilled it may cost me a couple of £thousand but it will be worth it so that I can tell the water company to stick their bills where the sun doesn't shine. As for sewerage there is a system called "Bio rock" that deals with waster water and sewerage, with no maintenance. You do not require a licence or permission to drill a well and can abstract 29,000 litres per day without any charges.

I have dug a shallow well in my garden as an experiment and struck water at 2 metres depth. Not suitable for drinking but ok for car washing and watering the garden.

When you work out your water useage do not forget to add the sewerage charge per metre to the estimated water consumption.

TheStoakes

re post from 'statex' saying a water meter wont save you money

...rubbish - and I have the proof with years of bills from Severn Trent to show for it! We live in a 4 bed detached, 2 adults and a 7ry old, have 4 showers a day, washing machine on daily, dishwasher on 4 times a week, plus the usual car washing/paddling pool use etc and our bill was cut from £595 on rates to £335 a year on meter. So glad we switched three years ago. We as a family pay less now than when I lived alone 11 yrs ago in a 2 bed flat with no dishwasher etc!
Why pay £000's on a well and your bio-rock system - you will regret it and most likely never be able to sell the property afterwards!

Uxb

@statex
You have presumably (in your enthusiasm) omitted to investigate the regulations on private water supplies for use in your home.
That means regular testing and certifying of the water extracted and the costs of any associated treatment works required plus their maintenance ---- all at your cost of course.

I'd reckon you going to be spending rather more on getting a borehole drilled plus all the control gear - though it does depend on what the strata type is below your house: rock, coral rag, Sandstone etc.
You have checked I suppose that there is actually a water bearing strata/acquifier below - like Sand or Chalk or Limestone and how deep it is?
The deeper the better quality of water.
Then there is Limestone and there is Limestone - some gives up the water easily though cracks - other types do not. So one well might yield a lot while another a short distance away might not.

As this point you will realise how expensive it is running a private supply and also by comparison how cheap mains water is in the UK and why owners of those remote properties 'off mains' are prepared to spend 10's of thousands of pounds in their attempts to connect into a water mains somewhere - anywhere.

klint

Today I received my annual Thames Water bill. Rateable value £250. Even though Thames Water bills are supposed to have gone down by 1%, my bill has increased from £405 to £411 – an increase of 1.5%

It's only a small, two-bedroom flat, single occupancy. I never wash the car and never water the garden. I am at work most of the day so don't even use the water to make tea. Unfortunately, I cannot have a water meter because I'm only renting. Last year, when I moved in, I asked Thames Water if I could have the flat assessed anyway. They refused and said all I could do was request a meter.

I think they ought to allow water usage to be assessed without having to request a meter in cases like mine.

Cardew

klint wrote: »

Today I received my annual Thames Water bill. Rateable value £250. Even though Thames Water bills are supposed to have gone down by 1%, my bill has increased from £405 to £411 – an increase of 1.5%

It's only a small, two-bedroom flat, single occupancy. I never wash the car and never water the garden. I am at work most of the day so don't even use the water to make tea. Unfortunately, I cannot have a water meter because I'm only renting. Last year, when I moved in, I asked Thames Water if I could have the flat assessed anyway. They refused and said all I could do was request a meter.

I think they ought to allow water usage to be assessed without having to request a meter in cases like mine.

Renting a flat doesn't stop you applying for a water meter as long as your tenancy is more than 6 months, and it does not need the landlord's permission.


You can only have an assessed charge if it is not possible for the water company to fit a meter because of a shared mains or no space etc.

klint

Cardew wrote: »

Renting a flat doesn't stop you applying for a water meter as long as your tenancy is more than 6 months, and it does not need the landlord's permission.

Thanks, but I'm surprised by that. If I were the landlord and my tenant went ahead and put a water meter in my property, and then left after a year, I would be extremely annoyed - I hadn't asked for a meter and yet I would not be allowed to get rid of it to bring the property back to the state it was in prior to the let.

sniggings

klint wrote: »

Thanks, but I'm surprised by that. If I were the landlord and my tenant went ahead and put a water meter in my property, and then left after a year, I would be extremely annoyed - I hadn't asked for a meter and yet I would not be allowed to get rid of it to bring the property back to the state it was in prior to the let.

the water company likewise could force you to put a meter in when the tenant left anyway.

facade

klint wrote: »

It's only a small, two-bedroom flat, single occupancy.

Do you get a single occupancy discount?

I just found out about this, when I was looking at going for a meter as I now live on my own, and posts on here assured me that I would save.

You need to prove you get a single occupancy discount on the Council Tax to get it.

Cardew

sniggings wrote: »

the water company likewise could force you to put a meter in when the tenant left anyway.

Exactly!


Since April 1990 water companies have had the power to enforce the fitting of a meter on change of occupant. Some companies have enforced that provision, others haven't bothered.


Apart from that, why is the landlord reluctant to have a meter in a small 2 bed? It is unlikely that metered charges would be as high as those assessed on RV.

Cardew

facade wrote: »

Do you get a single occupancy discount?

I just found out about this, when I was looking at going for a meter as I now live on my own, and posts on here assured me that I would save.

You need to prove you get a single occupancy discount on the Council Tax to get it.

I believe the single occupancy discount for water only applies when you have an assessed charge; and you have to apply for a meter, and it cannot be fitted, before you can be considered for an assessed charge.