Here, just 2 adults, can't have a meter in our flat so no choice anyway; thus on AHC (Assessed Household Charge), not the more expensive RV (Rateable Value).
Even if we could be on a meter, only affects ~20% of your total bill amount anyway, as most is fixed charges and fixed waste water charge, so we'd save maybe £50-75 on our new £640/year bill (some people may have soak-aways to save a small extra amount on waste water, but not many people). While ours went up 45%, some have seen 70% increases from reading across the web, so maybe shouldn't grumble in the scheme of things.
The thing is that the water industry has been massively badly managed over the last couple of decades at least, so we've all been paying far less than we should have been been charged over a long period. (even outside of any dividend shareholder overpayments, and the like, that were the final cherry on the cake in lack of funding issues!)
When I look at my last 10-years of bills being on AHC, one year I had a ridiculous MINUS 0.67% DECREASE! Others were pennies increase per year, seemingly not even having inflation taken into account; which was completely unsustainable! Only until 3-years ago did we see 12% increases – when the penny finally dropped, and someone in high places realised water needed proper investment. Hence we see the pricing consequences today.
Here's a copy-paste of my last 10-years of water spreadsheet:
Blue = tiny increases (past ridiculous behaviour!)
Green = minus decrease (past ridiculous behaviour!)
Red = recent large increases (current ridiculous behaviour caused by past ones!)
Bill/y | +/- £ | +/- % |
313.74 | 7.27 | 2.37 |
311.65 | -2.09 | -0.67 |
316.05 | 4.40 | 1.41 |
316.91 | 0.86 | 0.27 |
319.20 | 2.29 | 0.72 |
334.05 | 14.85 | 4.65 |
348.40 | 14.35 | 4.30 |
389.72 | 41.32 | 11.86 |
438.61 | 48.89 | 12.54 |
639.16 | 200.55 | 45.72 |
