Water Rates

[lily]

Our water bills here in the south west are sky high, and in an area where wages are in general below average. We are lucky to live in a beautiful part of the UK, and as a consequence have a proportionately high area of coast to look after. We suffer the "double whammy" of high rainfall and high water bills. Strikes me as a bit odd as we're supposed to be a united kingdom. Our beaches and coast are there for all to visit and enjoy, seems to me it would be fairer if there was one tariff for water which was uniform throughout the country. Or, even more controversially, there was a visitor's tax which helped to keep the water bills at a more reasonable level for the inhabitants of the south west. Any opinions anyone?

[SummerSkye]

Hi Lily, this is our first time in town on water rates (Australia); it is a user pays system where every kilolitre is charged for. If you keep water useage down under a certain amount you pay half rate so it is an incentive to be careful.
Everybody pays the same access charges but different useage charges depending on their meter reading.
Our quarterly account including sewerage charge was $85 which I thought to be very reasonable. There was a pensioner discount of $22.
Surely people visiting your beaches, if camping or in caravans are paying a fee and some of this must flow back in council charges from the owner/operator. The User Pays system seems very fair to me and is being introduced Australia wide.

[Healing Hands]

Water rates and council tax rates have yet again risen here in the South East, there is not a lot one can do except pay or go to jail! But it is annoying if you live alone like I do and have a small income, I do get a 25% discount on my council tax because I am a widow and live alone but not on my water rates.

[lily]

Hello Summerskye, we can opt for a metering system here which I imagine equates to your pay as you use system. However, even with metering the price varies according to which part of the country you live in. It seems odd to me that here in the south west with our heavy rainfall we pay far more for water than the south east where it is in short supply. I think soon we will all be metered- the water company have been along our lane marking the spots where they would fit a meter. Overall the water company will still want their big profits, so if everyone is metered I'm sure the overall unit price will still rise.A real grumpy old woman post this one!

[jazzactivist]

I agree with you, lily, that it would be better if there was one overall metered price per litre, then smaller households would pay less. In Scotland our water rates are part of our Council Tax, and we also have lots of rain. Have you considered a rainwater harvesting system? I read an article in permaculture magazine about how to set up your own rainwater flush system for your toilet using recycled items. It didn't look too difficult. Toilet flushing and washing machines use the most water, so if we could all use collected rainwater for these it wouldn't cost.

[Healing Hands]

That would be a brillent idea Jazz to use a rainwaterflush system, because of my job I have quite a few towels to wash in the course of the week, so hence I use the washing machine a lot. I had thought about going on a metre as it is only me most of the time in the house (except weekends when Kens comes up), but because I use the machine quite a bit I wondered if I would be saving or not! but if there could be asystem were you can recycle your water that would be really good, but then if everyone did that would the council find another way to tax us? :confused:

[SummerSkye]

Here, the govt. gives a rebate on the cost of water tanks provided that they are connected to a toilet, washing machine or both; the rebate depends on how many things are connected to the tank supply. We can also connect a hose to the grey water outlet to use in the garden. Most of our homes have relied solely on rainwater tanks so I am pretty careful with any water use. With water becoming a key issue worldwide I think all councils will start using meters to monitor useage. If you are in a high rainfall area then tanks are definately the way to go.

[jazzactivist]

That sounds like a very civilised way to deal with the water situation, Summerskye. When I lived in South Africa there was a 6 year drought and, although I lived in the wettest area in Cape Town, we still had to water the garden only with grey water from the shower and sinks (baths were discouraged), put a brick in the toilet cistern to reduce water use, and couldn't water grass or wash cars unless you had your own bore hole. Water was strictly metered, but everyone coped well and it just becomes part of life. It seems ironic that we are thinking of this in the UK as for the past two days it has been throwing it down here!