severn trent trust fund..anyone used it?

bimma

a friend of mine recently messaged me with a link and said he managed to reduce is water bill to appox £4.00 a month!!

i didnt go into detail as to how, was wandering if anyone else has heard of this/used it?

do you need to be on certain benefits/low income to qualify?
http://www.sttf.org.uk/

Cardew

Yes of course it is means tested! Or did you think that all of the millions of Severn Trent's customers qualified for a grant.

Don't forget that the reductions, to those deemed to qualify for help, are paid for by increased charges to the remainder of Severn Trent's customers.

Robisere

What the Water companies do not want you to know, is that you can obtain a discount for certain circumstances.

Such as having Soakaways for roof runoff instead of it going directly to the main drains, or having a water butt(s) connected to all the roof runoff. Check out your non-waste drainage and access the Water company website, to find the relevant form. If you live in a large town or city, it may not be possible, but more rural areas do tend to have soakaways. I did this for several neighbours and eventually the whole village followed suit, those without soakaways fitted water butts to direct gutter water into downpipes.

Does not save a huge amount: it started at £32 annually, but increases with a percentage of charges every year.

Cardew

Robisere wrote: »

What the Water companies do not want you to know, is that you can obtain a discount for certain circumstances.

Not so. With the Government controlled(The Water Act) financing of the water companies, it makes absolutely no difference to the water companies if you are metered and pay less, don't pay the Surface Water Drainage(SWD) charge etc.

The reason for this is under the direction of the Regulator(ofwat) the companies can raise £xxx million in revenue each year and make £yy million profit. So it doesn't matter if they, say, lose £1million in revenue from SWD charges, they can recoup that money by slightly increasing other charges.

those without soakaways fitted water butts to direct gutter water into downpipes.

Does not save a huge amount: it started at £32 annually, but increases with a percentage of charges every year.

Whilst having all surface water go to soakaways will exempt a property from the SWD charge. It always was the case that water butts would not exempt properties from SWD. The reason given was that the water butts could overflow and the water enter the sewerage system. Many properties have no garden to use the thousands of litres that run off a roof in a year. In some cases surface water will run off the garden(particularly when tarmac is used to make a parking space) and into the street.

Can you tell us which water company you have please and when they changed their policy about water butts.

Incidentally SWD varies greatly from company to company, and £32 is at the bottom end of the scale, it can be well over £100.

matelodave

Robisere wrote: »

What the Water companies do not want you to know, is that you can obtain a discount for certain circumstances.

Not true - a lot of info is on your bill, should you bother to check it

All the info on charging and discounts etc are shown on the water companies. It's not really all that difficult to put a bit of effort in to see how your bill is calculated and to check what help or discounts might be available

Norman_Castle

[QUOTE=Cardew;72323306
Don't forget that the reductions, to those deemed to qualify for help, are paid for by increased charges to the remainder of Severn Trent's customers.[/QUOTE]

The trust is a charity so STW might be able donate to it instead of paying the money as tax.