Annex: Illustrative case histories—Three
water customers
Mr Smith is a wealthy Londoner who works in
financial services. In 2001 he paid nearly a million pounds for
a house on a virtually private beach adjoining a surfing beach
in Cornwall. Although on a low rateable value reflecting its size
and value many years ago, the house has been extensively rebuilt
and expanded over recent years. It was connected to mains sewerage
at some considerable cost to SW Water customers collectively at
the time the "Clean Sweep" programme closed down raw
sewerage outfalls on the surfing beach. He was paying £490
a year for water and sewage based on his (historic) rateable value.
His family only use the house during the summer holidays and for
surfing. Earlier this year he changed to a metered water supply
and because of relatively low water use averaged over the year
he now pays just under £100 per annum. As such he pays a
minimal contribution to the infrastructure cost incurred by providing
him with treated water and sewage services.
Mrs Jones and Mrs James are twin widowed sisters
in their late eighties. One lives in Portsmouth and the other
in Plymouth. They live in very similar houses with identical rateable
values. Neither has significant savings nor a pension other than
the state pension. Both live frugally, but Mrs Jones in Portsmouth
pays £243.31 per annum on water and sewage, while Mrs James
pays £490.70 in Plymouth. In view of the smallness of their
income, the £5 per week extra Mrs James has to pay leads
to a devastating difference in their standard of living. Neither
are financially astute nor particularly well informed. Both have
had neighbours change over to meters but they are afraid of change
and worried by variable bills. Nobody has ever tried to inform
them of the possible benefits of metering and neither is able
to read the small print on the back of their water bills. They
trust "the water board" and assume that if money could
be saved, somebody would come and talk to them about it. In fact
as Mrs James is a frugal water user her metered bill would be
around £150 per annum, a saving of £7 per week. This
amount is in effect a subsidy from Mrs James which helps reduce
the costs to the more financially astute Mr Smith.
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