Water bills set to rise 15%

BRITAIN'S householders are set to face a 15% rise in their water bills, thanks to European Union officials. The UK water companies are having to invest billions of pounds to meet EU regulations.

The water regulator, Ofwat, will impose a new round of price increases on Friday that will increase average charges by 8.5%. This will pump up a typical bill from £249 to £270 for the year 2005-2006.

The biggest increase, of 14.9%, is being levied on customers of Thames Water. The higher bills are despite the prospect of summer restrictions for millions of consumers. Thames is among the companies that have warned that hosepipe and sprinkler bans are likely because of the third driest winter for 120 years.

Most of the increase is attritbuted to EU requirements for companies to invest in cleaning up beaches and drinking water and improving the processing of sewage.

Millions of people, however, are literally pouring money down the drain by not installing a water meter, it was claimed today. Installing a meter could lead to savings of around £125 for 14.5m water customers, a report from uSwitch.com claims. Only one in four of the 26m households in the UK are on a water meter, uSwitch said. But many could save money by paying just for what they use.

Alan Tattersall, director of home services at uSwitch.com, said: 'People don't register that there are huge savings to be made by installing a water meter and unlike energy, you can't simply switch your supplier to a cheaper one.

'Water bills are worked out using the rateable value of the house - a rather antiquated combination of the type, location and value of the property. In many cases, it can be much cheaper to switch to a water meter and pay only for what you use, as with gas and electricity.'