Laws angry over water charges (From Chard & Ilminster News)

Laws angry over water charges

8:05am Monday 25th February 2008 in Chard By Steve Sowden

YEOVIL MP David Laws has written to Government ministers urging them to put in place a fairer system of charges for customers of South West Water.

The company announced on Friday an increase in charges of 8.7 per cent for unmetered customers and 5.6 per cent for metered customers.

This means that South West Water charges for water and sewage are some of the highest in Britain.

And Mr Laws said: "These further big increases in water and sewage bills will hit customers hard - particularly pensioners and those on low incomes.

"South West Water customers are paying through the nose for the grossly unfair way in which the Conservatives privatised the water industry - leaving a small number of South West Water customers to pay the huge costs of maintaining a third of the bathing water sites around our coasts.

"I have written to ministers to ask them to review the unfair funding of water charges so that the massive burden in our area is properly shared with people across the country."

And Mr Laws added: "I would also advise any constituents who use South West Water to consider whether they would be better off moving to a metered supply, as this is massively cheaper for most people than standard unmetered bills."