LETTER: Why big water bill increase?

I have just received my latest statement of account ('˜bill' is so vulgar) from Southern Water. It covers the last six months and tells me that my wife and I have used on average 285 litres a day.

When compared with the previous four statements, when the usage was 284, 283, 276 and 290 litres a day, it tells me that my usage is fairly consistent. It also tells me that at the start of the accounting period I was nearly £15 in credit and now at the end of this period my credit had increased to almost £21. So it looks like our account is about right in terms of monthly payments versus usage.

The latest rise for water services, according to the internet, appears to be between one and two per cent, another source saying the average rise will be about £9 per annum. So why does my latest bill indicate that my monthly donation will increase from £34.50 to £38.50, a rise of over 11 per cent? I don’t intend to use that much more water in the coming year.

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I thought that the excuse these pirates used to introduce compulsory metering was to prevent scams like this.

They wanted to increase my direct debit bill by nearly £50 a year yet according to one of their web sites they supply over 2,000,000 customers with drinking water that implies that they are trying to rake in advance sums of £100million.

I have complained and as a consequence my rise has been pegged back to £35.50 (the minimum they can achieve), nearly a 2.5 per cent increase, or £12 per year, but at least more in line with the proposed rises.

N. Furze

King Edward Avenue
Worthing

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