Do you want to be able to choose your water company?

mcb1

I have no doubt that I could save money by switching water company. I moved recently just 25 miles from my old home and my water bills went up by over 25%. When I complained to the sewage comapny which saw the biggest rise I was told that the area they cover was large and more rural and thus their costs were larger. I am on the edge of my old district and so I am paying for people who live 200 miles away. This doesnt happen with gas and electric!!! More annoyingly I am supplied by the same mains water company but they have a higher charge for my new area than for my old one about 5%. This higher charge doesnt apply to a property 10 miles awaywhich comes under my old area. SO YES WE NEED WATER COMPANY SWITCHING PLEASE

tim_n

Yes! I want to switch! I pay two charges, one to the water company and one to the sewerage. Before that I used to have just one company to deal with and my bills were almost half of what they are now and I didn't use to have a water meter!

Cardew

Some posters should read the first few posts in this thread as they have obviously misunderstood the Ofwat proposal.

Everyone accepts that charging for water/sewerage in UK is both unfair and full of anomalies. However the proposal will do nothing to alter the basic charging structure in UK. i.e if you live in a property with high charges, even if there is to be 'competition', you will continue to pay high charges and at best you might get a reduction of about £6 a year.

gatita

Cardew, thank you for clarifying that, so as far as I am concerned the whole bl***y system needs to be changed. In the S. West they inform us that they (s. West Water) are responsible for all the beaches etc. How is that fair.... In my view it should be exactly the same for everyone no matter where you live.

Cardew

gatita wrote: »

Cardew, thank you for clarifying that, so as far as I am concerned the whole bl***y system needs to be changed. In the S. West they inform us that they (s. West Water) are responsible for all the beaches etc. How is that fair.... In my view it should be exactly the same for everyone no matter where you live.

Yes of course it is unfair on the South West customers, however you need to go back to Maggie's government era to lay the blame.

They sold off a largely Victorian water/sewerage industry to private investors and allowed them to charge customers to modernise and run the systems. The South West with a large area and lots of beaches, the costs are huge and there is a relatively small population to pay those costs.

mathmodave

Do you want the freedom to choose?
No - it will be the same water coming through the same pipes, so what exactly are we choosing?

Do you think competition in the water sector would be a positive change?
No - there will be absolutely no benefit to ordinary householders. As above, it's the same water coming through the same pipes.

Look what happened when a similar thing happened to gas and electricity. (Also the same electricity/gas coming through the same cables/pipes.) Now we have people calling us up, knocking on our doors, accosting us in the street asking us if we want to change energy supplier. I don't want this!

People who do switch admittedly [can] get a cheaper deal, but you have to keep switching year in and year out. People who don't switch pay the price and subsidise those who do.

Switching comes with untold complications, billing errors, refunds etc. and it's difficult to compare providers. People who think they are getting a good deal quite possibly are not.

The point is that there's the same amount of money available, so some people pay more while others pay less... but overall we all pay more because we have to pay for advertising, shareholder profits, call centres, people to accost you in the street and then customer service people to pick up the pieces when it all goes wrong. All totally unnecessary. And you waste my time at least every year when it's time to switch.

What people want is to pay a fair price for a good/reliable service. Nothing more, nothing less.

Would you be interested in switching supplier
No - see above

and what would make choose to do so?
If this happened, I'd be forced to look at the suppliers to try to get the cheapest deal, but I'd rather not waste my time.

Do you think it would lead to you getting a better deal?
No - the £6 I might save wouldn't offset the time I'd waste in organising a switch every year.

Fender4

I want competition to get significant reduction in bills.
why on earth would u want to change provider to save 6 quid a year!!!

Setting up would be a waste of tax payer money. No cost savings to the consumer and the water from the tap is still the same!

Ps this is a money saving web site.:money:

ruperts

Isn't part of ofwat's role to drive efficiency in the industry? If they believe there are efficiencies to be gained in metering and billing then why aren't they enforcing that through the existing price review mechanism? If ofwat think a small amount of competition would be better at driving efficiency than they are, then that doesn't inspire much confidence in them as a regulator.

[Deleted User]

Only people who will make money out of this will be the compare websites. If consumers have any chance of saving money they will have to constantly switch just like with gas and elec.

jimjames

Ofwat wrote: »

You would hope that retailers might actually put a focus on tackling leaks as it is in no-one's interest to waste water - including theirs. If they could tackle leaks, and so reduce usage, they might even be able to offer lower bills - making them attractive to customers.

But fixing leaks is nothing to do with retailers? Just like fixing a gas leak is nothing to do with the gas retailer.

As it can't be transported and is limited, competition seems a complete waste of time and more importantly, of money. Someone has to pay for the systems to enable switching and ultimately that's the customer.