Water Charges after 2000 (Hansard, 5 April 1995)

§ Viscount Ullswater

It is for water companies to decide the basis on which they should calculate the bills of individual customers, though the Director General of Water Services has powers to prevent preferential and discriminatory charging of individuals and classes of customer. Companies may not however use rateable values after 31 March 2000, and there are limitations on access to information about the council tax banding of individual properties.

The Government believe that metering is in the long term the best basis for paying for water in many circumstances. It is fair and equitable, in that it relates charges directly to the amount of water used. It gives 25WA customers some control over their bills. Payment by amount used encourages customers to use only water they need and in dry areas it is important that we should develop patterns of water use that are sustainable in the longer term. The Government therefore believe that companies should extend the availability of meters as far as is reasonable. Compulsory transfer to meters for existing domestic customers in existing premises should not generally be necessary.

For practical reasons, wide extension of the use of meters will take considerable time to achieve. Meanwhile, companies will need an alternative basis of charging for many properties. My right honourable friends the Secretary of State for the Environment and the Secretary of State for Wales have considered the representations they have received from the water industry that information about council valuation bands would be a suitable basis for charging for water. My right honourable friends have looked carefully at the evidence which has been put forward. They have concluded that a change to a system based on council tax banding would not be satisfactory. Such a charging system would not necessarily be more equitable than any other unmeasured basis and its introduction would give rise to widespread and arbitrary changes in bills, including the possibility of substantial increases in charges for many of those least able to pay. Further changes would also have to follow as customers moved to charging by metered consumption. My right honourable friends do not therefore intend to allow access to this information.

Companies will however need an alternative to metering as the basis of charging after 31 March 2000. My right honourable friends the Secretary of State for the Environment and the Secretary of State for Wales have therefore decided that the best course would be to allow the use of rateable values after that date. The necessary changes to the legislation will be made in due course.