Why?
Why Now?
Every five years we update our plan for how we’ll look after water in our region. It’s called our Water Resources Management Plan (WRMP) that we share and get approved by the Environment Agency, DEFRA and the Secretary of State for the Environment.
As well as working to complete our smart meter rollout by 2030, our latest plan for the next five years includes fitting meters at homes without one and moving customers to measured charges to help them use less water and reduce the risks we’re facing from climate change and population growth in the region.
Why my area?
We’re starting in areas that are most water stressed – which means where we see the biggest potential gap between the water available to us and the amount of water being used by our customers.
How is this fair?
Nearly nine out of ten customers already pay measured charges based on the water meter installed at their home, which means they only pay for what they use.
The system of paying ‘Water Rates’ or Rateable Value is based on a value applied to homes back in March 1990 and includes factors like the size of your home, the number of rooms, and your local amenities. Although the Rateable Value of your home is no longer set by councils, we must still legally base our charges on those values, where a meter is not fitted.
We believe that charging on the basis of what customers use is fairer as it better reflects the amount of cost involved in cleaning, treating and supplying the water customers use.
Are you just doing this to make more money?
No, because a lot of the customers we’re switching to measured charges already have a meter, we’re able to see from those meter readings that around two out of three customers would pay less by moving to measured rates.
The majority of customers who ask to have a meter fitted and move onto measured rates typically stay on measured charges as they are better off.
Ofwat regulate charging rules that govern how water companies set their bills to make sure that they are fair and transparent. They regulate the amount of revenue each company is allowed to charge customers through their water bills, and we set charges in order to work within this allowance, based on the forecast of customer numbers and how much water they expect to use. This applies to customers on measured and unmeasured rates.
Do your regulators support you automatically switching customers?
As our region is classed as extremely water stressed, regulators support programmes, from water companies, to install more meters and move customers to measured charges if those activities are included in the Water Resources Management plan (WRMP). In our latest WRMP, published in 2024 we included these measures along with our smart meter rollout as ways to help customers use less water at home.
The independent body that represents the interests of customers, Consumer Council for Water (CCW) agree that paying measured charges through a water meter is the fairest way for customers to pay for their services
Is the long-term plan to do this to all of our region?
Yes – our plan is to move all customers over to measured charges by April 2030 using a meter. When fitting a meter isn’t possible we’ll look to move customers to Assessed Measured Charges. If we are unable to fit a meter at your property, we'll discuss the available options with you.
Are you allowed to do this?
Our region (with the exception of Hartlepool) is officially classed as water stressed by the government departments - the Department for Food and Rural Affairs and the Environment Agency (DEFRA/EA) which means we can give customers what’s called a ‘Measured charge notice’ and move them onto measured rates – even if they haven’t opted in themselves. It also allows us to fit meters at homes without one, and move those customers onto measured charges rather than remain on unmeasured rates.
Why don’t you target higher water users instead?
Rather than choosing customer groups based on usage for the rollout, we’re going to the areas of most water stress first. We believe this is the fairest way to roll out measured charges and because the majority of customers should see lower bills after they switch, it means as well as saving water, more customers should get a benefit sooner rather than just switching higher users.
