"Stan The Man" wrote in message
...
In article , Mary
Fisher wrote:

But why shouldn't we pay for what we use?

We should, and doubtless we all will before long. Profiteering by the
water compnaies shouldn't be an issue as Ofcom keeps a close eye on
prices and they are anyway limited by law to a maximum profit of 7% of
turnover.

One reason they have been playing for time is that metering technology
is antiquated and a lot of people have been trying to come up with a
meter which does more than simply measure the amount of water passing
through it. They want timers as well so that they can charge more for
high season water in summer (as per the current smart metering trials
in Kent,

Again - how do you know?

and they also want data feedback which tells them where the
water goes, eg to a bath, a kitchen appliance, an outside tap, etc.

How do you know?

They would then finally have reliable data on water usage patterns and
needs and they would also be able to introduce different tariffs for
different uses.

How do you know?

Current meter technology doesn't differentiate between
indoor use (which the compnaies have a statutory obligation to supply)
and outside tap use (which currently has no service level agreement,
hence the over-use and mis-use of hosepipe bans).

How do you know?