[meldrewreborn]

I've a friend (no really!!) who lives in a council flat, 9th floor in London, - it has 2 bedrooms, 2 people and cannot be metered. They pay assessed charges - so what they might pay if metering was possible.

The annual cost from April is nearly £640!!

I have Affinity Water for my water supply and Thames Water for the waste water . We're metered and for the current year we pay £22 per month combined and from April it will be circa £30 per month.

2 points from this. One is that its quite an increase for me, but also a great disparity between costs in different areas, especially as our premises is a 3 bed semi compared to the 2 bed flat.

I think investment into our water systems is long overdue, so I can't really complain about the increases. I think that OFWAT the regulator has done a great job at keeping bills down for a long time - the problem is that means investment in the system has been less than needed for that same length of time. And I blame the regulator for not seeing first hand the effect of its constraints.

know that some point to the dividends paid out by some water companies, but that is a side issue to me, its more investment has been lacking, and that is the main cause of the problems that exist today.

[Andy65]

@meldrewreborn

My guess is that assessed charges are likely based on equivalent heavy metered users, ie the high end rather than the average, over 50 quid a month for two people would be very high if they were on a meter in my opinion.

I haven't had my increase from Severn Trent yet but I'm only currently paying a tenner because they gave me two £30 credits last year for two separate days of low pressure.

ST changed my meter two years ago for a smart one, there's no real time usage and it's about 1 to 2 days behind. The only main advantage that I can see is that it has a continuous use (leak) alert.

[meldrewreborn]

@Andy65

the assessed charges are much lower than the ancient “rateable value” method for the same flat.

however a flat will use less water than a house - no garden to water . But these are not differentiated by Thames.

[Tommysgirl]

@meldrewreborn @Andy65

£640 a year is very high. I've been been on metered water since buying the bungalow as a new-build in 1998. Northumbrian Water read the meters twice a year in March and September. I've recently received my new online yearly bill from 1st April based on the March reading, and I've used less water but it's increased from £23 per month to £28 per month. I agree with you about the under-investment.

[meldrewreborn]

@Tommysgirl

My meter is billed every 6 months as yours is but when Affinity ran a water saving initiative they sent me data with monthly readings. I think these meters are read remotely - I never see them lifting the covers to look inside!

[wizzo227]

Well for comparison to £640 per year, two people, I present the Thames Water acheived bill of a miser; thats me, one person.
£90 for a half year, so presently about £180 per year before the April fools price rise.

Standing charge "Fixed Charge" since last year was up by about 20% on both metered water and when you pay for it the second time under category "used water disposal". The standing charges seem to have more than doubled since 2014.

How did I get lower-than-typical water bills ?

The same approach as with electricity; keep an eye on what the metered water was being used for, and if possible substitute with unmetered water. After gardening, the biggest use which didn't need drinking-quality water was flushing the loo.

I keep three buckets in the bathroom, and after bathday, fill three buckets before pulling the plug, and that is most of my bathwater providing between 3 and 6 loo flushes without using metered water. Ok as an experiment that has saved money, but I'm not going to recommend that for everyone because scummy bathwater still looks scummy in the loo and eventually seems to encourage a horrible slime to grow in there which is unsuitable for households with small children. I've seen no evidence that scummy loo water slime might jump out and eat small children.

A less horrible money-saver is to carry a bucket of clean rainwater upstairs from time to time. That is much better for free loo flushing because rainwater is clear, clean, and usually cold. I do still sometimes use the normal flush from piped metered drinking-water, but not if there is a flush-bucketfull available.

I could go on to recommendations for legislators to decrease unnecessary billed water use at new homes, but nobody has asked me to do that.

[meldrewreborn]

@wizzo227

But that depends on having a meter, which my friend can't have (there are 3 water inlets to the flat - 2 from the roof tanks and one fresh from the mains).

So if you were in a similar space in London, and couldn't have a meter, you'd pay a slightly lower assessed charge than £640, but much more than you face now. The iniquities in water bills are great.

Do you follow the Martin Lewis advice on loos? If its yellow let it mellow, if its brown flush it down?

Thames Water standing charges for metered sewage are up from £83 last year by another £46!

[wizzo227]

There is no such thing as "can't". If some of the water enters his flat by a pipe then it is feasible to fit a meter there. If Thames complain that it isn't an outdoor meter for their pavement poker to look at, then perhaps Ofwat need to bash through new regulations defining the types of smartphones trusted to do a dated photographed untampered meter read, which should be most of them by now. If Thames Water customer service think that is too hard, then sell consultancy services to them to tell them how it can be fairly done in a tamperproof way without need for anything fancier than a clockwork water meter with a visible number for the customer to photograph once a year.
Thames like to remind us that leaks under our garden are after the place where Thames like to put their meter. Flats don't have a front garden like that. It is Ofwat's job not mine to say something to Thames Water to get your friend out of £640/year which probably isn't his fault.

As for Martin Lewis, there are some things which I'd rather leave for the expert.

[DebF_EONNext]

@meldrewreborn I always find this topic interesting, in Scotland we pay for our water in our council tax bill - it's added on to our bill as an added charge based on your council tax band.

I'm on the lowest council tax band so my council tax includes an annual charge of £185.28 for water and a charge of £214.98 for waste which I pay over 12 months. Those that get a council tax rebate for being on low income or benefits etc also can get a reduction of up to 35% on those rates too, it seems to be a very different scheme to England!

[meldrewreborn]

@DebF_EONNext

It’s a different scheme depending upon which regional water supplier you have. Once upon a time investigations were carried out which would have allowed customers to switch suppliers, much as we can for gas or electricity. Obviously these came to nought!