HC Deb 06 March 1989 vol 148 cc433-4W
Mr. Churchill

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what estimate he has made of(a) the average cost per household, and (b) the overall cost in England and Wales of installing individual water meters in each dwelling; to what extent this is to be at the charge of (a) the Exchequer and (b) the consumer; and what estimate he has made of the cost to public funds of meter installations where the householder is in receipt of income support.

Mr. Moynihan

[holding answer 3 March 1989]: As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State said in a reply 1:0 my hon. Friend the Member for Derby, North (Mr. Knight) on 20 February at column 495, it will be some time before the metering trials provide reliable estimates of the average cost of installing meters on a wide scale. This will depend on a number of factors including the extent of complex plumbing, the number of common supply pipes, the siting of meters and the type of meter technology used.

Where a water undertaker decides to introduce compulsory metering of existing properties, the cost of installing meters will be met by the water undertaker and recovered, in so far as they are reasonable, through charges to its customers as a whole. The amount of costs which they will be able to recover in this way will be subject to an average cash ceiling per installation set by the director general. There will be no charge on public funds.