§ MR. WOOTTON ISAACSONI beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether his attention has been drawn to a notice issued by the Grand Junction Waterworks Company to alter and adopt, at a considerable expense to householders, the existing service, so as to render it suitable for a constant supply; and whether the Government will now bring in a Bill to compel Water Companies to charge by measurement the water used in all houses over £100 per annum?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. H. H. FOWLER,) Wolverhampton, E.I am aware that the Grand Junction Water Company have issued notices of their in- 106 tention to give in a certain area a constant supply of water and require the owners and occupiers of premises in that area to provide the necessary fittings. This is only an extension by this Company of the system which has been very generally adopted by the London Water Companies—according to the latest Returns, 553,000 houses, or about 70 per cent. of the whole number supplied by the Water Companies, being on constant supply. A proposal that houses over £100 per annum should be relieved from the present mode of assessment to water rates is not one that I could recommend.
§ MR. WOOTTON ISAACSONIs not the right hon. Gentleman aware that the inhabitants of houses of over £100 a year rent are frequently absent for several months of the year, and consequently consume no water during such periods?
§ MR. H. H. FOWLERThe charge for water supply is a statutory charge, and is based, not upon the amount of water consumed, but upon the rateable value of the houses. This mode of assessment was arrived at in the interest of the working classes, and is adopted generally throughout the country.