Water bills - do they ever go down ?

[unclebulgaria67]

Silly question really. But has anyone ever received their water/sewerage bill which has shown a reduction on the previous year ? Why do these water companies believe they can increase the bill above the rate of inflation, when I expect that their costs of operation have not increased. It is not as if, they will be giving their staff a decent pay rise.

 

In most areas of the country you are stuck with one company. You cannot shop around. The government should be looking into the water industry and doing what they can to ensure that no excess profits are being made. It was silly to privatise the water industry in the first place, as most are now foreign owned.

[topcat1802]

Yes they do. I used to be a customer of Portsmouth Water and believe it or not the last bill we received from them (in 2013) was lower than the one we received from them the previous year (2012). Unfortunately although Portsmouth Water supplied fresh water they did not deal with the waste water which was the responsibility of Southern Water, and there bills always went up every year. So what we gained with Portsmouth Water we generally lost with Southern Water.

I believe that Portsmouth Water customers have some of the lowest bills in the country for the supply of fresh water.

[alan5044]

I live in a housing associations block of flats and they are all on metered supplies

one of my neighbours asked me to look at his water bill as they were asking for him to pay £40 pounds a month (one bedroom single occupant flat),

 

checked his meter and readings were correct.

Looked at the front of his flat and found that both of his water overflows were working overtime.

 

Rang the housing association repair line to be told they would attend in 4 weeks time

asked them for the address to send them the water bill,

They attended two days later.

 

 

Contacted Severn Trent told them he could not pay what they were requesting and offered £30 a month which they acceipted.

 

I believe that water cannot be cut off as long as you are paying something ??.

 

A lot of people do not know that if the water authorities cannot fit a water meter

and you are a single person there is a special low consumers rate

that they should put you on but they do not advertise this of course.

 

Water meters cannot be fitted in all properties

one my granddaughter is in would have to have three meters which they will not do for cost reasons,

there are also some older properties that the water supply goes through and feeds more than one property.

Edited March 15, 2014 by alan5044
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