Clause 16 - Charges schemes

Part of Water Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 9:45 am on 10 December 2013.

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Photo of Dan Rogerson Dan Rogerson The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 9:45, 10 December 2013

On crossing to universal metering, there would clearly be environmental benefits if people understood better how much water they used and had that information. The hon. Gentleman and I represent constituencies in an area where many people have gone over to metering. In areas where that has started, the process snowballs, because ultimately the non-metered bills are seen to be higher. In some other parts of the country, this proposal does not meet with the approval of customers. The hon. Member for Islwyn pointed out that he was not a fan of compulsory metering and was concerned about the effects that it might have. We need to maintain an approach that is right for each area. Given the cost on companies of moving to metering—installation is a cost not to customers, but to companies—companies might invest in meters a lot of money that could be spent on other infrastructure, which we also want. We need a balance, which is why the Government are not convinced that we should go for universal metering.