Compulsory water metres are sending bills rocketing, and residents aren't happy
The disgusted of Tunbridge Wells are becoming even more disgusting and maybe even a little bit smelly. Residents of the well-heeled spa town are angry that the local water company is forcing every house on to meters – and sending the bill, for some, rocketing.
Tunbridge Wells is one of a number of towns and districts across the south of England where water companies are enforcing meters on households that, until now, have liberally sprinkled their lawns, hosed down their cars and power-washed their patios.
Compulsory water metering was trialled in the 1980s in 11 areas across the country, including the Isle of Wight, and the result was an 11% decline in usage. Regulations that were enacted in 1999 allow local utilities to apply for "water scarcity status", giving them powers to force their customers to have meters installed.
Should we force households to switch to a meter? Before Tony Blair came to office in 1997, the Labour party described meters as a "tax on family life". Today opposition to meters is more likely to come from those who refuse to believe in climate change or, rather more reasonably, from those who distrust the profit motives of the privatised water companies. But mostly it comes from larger family households where bills will rise as a result of metering.
As the mother of one family with three children in Tunbridge Wells told me: "We feel we are being punished for having children. We've already lost our child benefit and now our water bills are going to rise. But the retired couple next door is going to be better off. It seems that old people in big houses are being looked after but we're not. And it's not as if we live in the bloody Sahara."
I asked her how she'd cope. "I suppose I'll have to wash up without the tap running and maybe not have the washing machine on so much …" My sympathy, it has to be said, started to ebb. A colleague tells me of his suburban neighbours whose water usage is almost scandalous; at the height of last year's drought (and amid water restrictions) they'd hired someone who spent hours pressure washing their decking.
There's something about the idea of enforced metering that turns middle England slightly mad. I looked online at a Daily Mail story and the comments below. Among the "best rated" (never go there if you want to retain your sanity) was one saying: "Foreigners are buying up our water companies to export our water abroad."
But, scrolling down, I found myself agreeing with what is fast becoming an emerging national consensus, across both left and right – that anything the utility companies do, such as metering, is only to gouge more profit from us.
To see among the "best rated" demands for re-nationalisation says a lot about how far the companies have lost the trust of the public. As Guardian Money reported in February, over the past decade water rates have soared by about 80%, and this month will rise to an average £388. In the same period, profits of some water companies have more than doubled.
What will happen when everyone is on the meter, and they dutifully reduce their usage? Will bills be cut? "Customers will end up paying more for less," said one Mail contributor, and it's difficult not to disagree.
Yet the UK is virtually alone in western Europe in not having compulsory water meters. The Spanish or Italians may think our rain-sodden isles swirl in more water than we should ever need but, in reality, parts of the south (particularly around Essex) are classified as "semi arid" by some definitions, nothwithstanding the lousy weather.
Water metering is probably one of those things the country will be dragged into, kicking and screaming, and then look back and wonder what the fuss was about. But I retain a nagging concern; how much more profitable is it for the water monopolies to make us pay for metering than to seriously reduce waste by tackling leaks? No, that would really hit their profits. Reported by guardian.co.uk 19 hours ago.
The disgusted of Tunbridge Wells are becoming even more disgusting and maybe even a little bit smelly. Residents of the well-heeled spa town are angry that the local water company is forcing every house on to meters – and sending the bill, for some, rocketing.
Tunbridge Wells is one of a number of towns and districts across the south of England where water companies are enforcing meters on households that, until now, have liberally sprinkled their lawns, hosed down their cars and power-washed their patios.
Compulsory water metering was trialled in the 1980s in 11 areas across the country, including the Isle of Wight, and the result was an 11% decline in usage. Regulations that were enacted in 1999 allow local utilities to apply for "water scarcity status", giving them powers to force their customers to have meters installed.
Should we force households to switch to a meter? Before Tony Blair came to office in 1997, the Labour party described meters as a "tax on family life". Today opposition to meters is more likely to come from those who refuse to believe in climate change or, rather more reasonably, from those who distrust the profit motives of the privatised water companies. But mostly it comes from larger family households where bills will rise as a result of metering.
As the mother of one family with three children in Tunbridge Wells told me: "We feel we are being punished for having children. We've already lost our child benefit and now our water bills are going to rise. But the retired couple next door is going to be better off. It seems that old people in big houses are being looked after but we're not. And it's not as if we live in the bloody Sahara."
I asked her how she'd cope. "I suppose I'll have to wash up without the tap running and maybe not have the washing machine on so much …" My sympathy, it has to be said, started to ebb. A colleague tells me of his suburban neighbours whose water usage is almost scandalous; at the height of last year's drought (and amid water restrictions) they'd hired someone who spent hours pressure washing their decking.
There's something about the idea of enforced metering that turns middle England slightly mad. I looked online at a Daily Mail story and the comments below. Among the "best rated" (never go there if you want to retain your sanity) was one saying: "Foreigners are buying up our water companies to export our water abroad."
But, scrolling down, I found myself agreeing with what is fast becoming an emerging national consensus, across both left and right – that anything the utility companies do, such as metering, is only to gouge more profit from us.
To see among the "best rated" demands for re-nationalisation says a lot about how far the companies have lost the trust of the public. As Guardian Money reported in February, over the past decade water rates have soared by about 80%, and this month will rise to an average £388. In the same period, profits of some water companies have more than doubled.
What will happen when everyone is on the meter, and they dutifully reduce their usage? Will bills be cut? "Customers will end up paying more for less," said one Mail contributor, and it's difficult not to disagree.
Yet the UK is virtually alone in western Europe in not having compulsory water meters. The Spanish or Italians may think our rain-sodden isles swirl in more water than we should ever need but, in reality, parts of the south (particularly around Essex) are classified as "semi arid" by some definitions, nothwithstanding the lousy weather.
Water metering is probably one of those things the country will be dragged into, kicking and screaming, and then look back and wonder what the fuss was about. But I retain a nagging concern; how much more profitable is it for the water monopolies to make us pay for metering than to seriously reduce waste by tackling leaks? No, that would really hit their profits. Reported by guardian.co.uk 19 hours ago.