Will the introduction of a “seasonal charge” for water be followed by something similar for sewage.treatment? Would that go up during the rainy season perhaps? – Owl
Households in the southwest of England are being encouraged to use less water in summer, in trials during which they will receive cheaper water in winter and pay more during the summer months.
Adam Vaughan www.thetimes.com
The region had a longer-lasting hosepipe ban than any other area after the 2022 drought. Water demand across the southwest surges in the summer with the annual tourist influx, just as water supplies are tighter because of hotter weather.
In an attempt to curb water use and bills, South West Water is moving 3,500 of its 1.8 million customers to a pair of two-year trial tariffs from October 1. Participants in Devon, Cornwall, Bristol and Bournemouth will be shifted to a “seasonal tariff” that will charge them £1.02 per 1,000 litres between October and March, far lower than the normal £2.07 for metered customers. The price will be higher than normal in summer. In illustrative examples, a resident in a flat would save £1 a year but a keen gardener might pay £22 more annually.
Others in the southwest will be moved to a “summer peak” tariff and enjoy cheaper water — £1.90 per 1,000 litres rather than £2.07 — provided they use no more than 90,000 litres between April and September. If they breach that level they will pay £7.60 per 1,000 litres. The summer threshold is equivalent to about 1,125 baths.
“Trialling alternative charging options has the potential to alleviate the pressure both on people’s finances and our water resources and we look forward to seeing the results of this new approach,” Andrew White, senior policy leader at the Consumer Council for Water, said.
Ray Henning, a retired heavy goods vehicle driver who lives in Exeter, objected to being moved to one of the new tariffs. “They have tried to tell me that on this new charging system I will save £5 a year on water. Wow! That’s just over £0.01 a day. I can bet that it will end up costing me a lot more than I am currently paying though,” he wrote on Facebook.
Only people who are poorly or moving house can opt out of the trials, which do not include customers on social tariffs. Steve Reed, the environment secretary, said recently that people should take individual responsibility for cutting water usage, to help to meet a national goal of reducing average household water consumption by a fifth by 2038.
East Devon Watch 
I believe this trial by South West Water is breaking the law in respect of UK civil rights. In stripping the 3500 “selected” consumers of their right to pay for their domestic water on the standard tariff like the rest of the community then using their monopoly to force them without obtaining consent to be the subject of experimentation SWW are practising outright discrimination – what other organisation in the UK is allowed to in effect grab members of the public in the UK off the street by profiling or arbitrary selection and then force them to be experimented on for behavioural change like they were laboratory animals ? – none – so how can South West Water legally do it ? Given their pretence to safeguard water consumers the seeming enthusiasm for such an experiment by Ofwat and the so called Consumer Council for Water is beyond parody and if true these organisations are not fit for purpose. Ofwat do not make the law they are there to make sure the law is correctly observed not to approve of it being broken. I challenged South West Water to explain by what legal basis they were forcing me to participate, no explanation was forthcoming but I received an email telling me that I was being removed from the seasonal tariff trial “with immediate effect” – I would suggest that a proper legal challenge or court injunction would bring the so called Seasonal Tariff trial to a halt. After a month waiting I am yet to receive an answer to FOI requests from Ofwat and the Consumer Council for Water asking them the legal basis for their support for the scheme which speaks volumes as well.
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I would presume that these experiments have been sanctioned by Ofwat, the blind, deaf, toothless water industry regulator that appears to be more in the pockets of, and on the side of, the water companies than representing consumers in a monopolised industry.
Based on the above descriptions I would personally characterise these as experiments in how to extract even more profit from customers – simply by virtue of expecting some customers to pay the same, and others to pay more. Clearly they have modelled this and they could have pitched the tariffs in such a way that those using the same amount of water in summer months i.e. those only using water to essential activities that are the same summer or winter actually make a significant saving, whilst those who use more water in the summer months pay for that saving, with the water companies themselves being neutral overall on revenue. This would be a fair and genuine experiment to see whether such changes could actually reduce summer water usage.
But instead Ofwat has (yet again) licensed the already obscenely profitable water companies and their obscenely well paid executives to charge consumers even more and make even more profits.
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