Water way to save

Brighton & Hove is next up for water metering

Southern Water’s five-year programme to install water meters for nearly all of its customers has come to Brighton and Hove. Installation teams began work in west Hove this month and will work their way across the city, from west to east, installing more than 74,000 meters by next October. The work programme will avoid the centres of Hove and Brighton during Christmas and the summer months.
Metering is a key part of Southern Water’s plans to help secure water resources for the region as families tend to reduce their demand for water once they are charged for every unit they consume. Presently, customers are charged according to the rateable value of their properties.
Metering is vital in Brighton and Hove as the South East has been officially classified by Government as a region of ‘serious water stress’. Darren Bentham, Southern Water’s Director of Metering says: “As well as helping to secure water resources for the future, metering is the fairest way to charge people for exactly what they use.
“We are also providing customers with lots of information and advice on how they can save water, save energy and save money and have introduced new tariffs to support the minority of customers whose bills may go up as they move to metered charges.”

Here’s how it will work
Southern Water has won national awards for the detailed and comprehensive way it communicates metering messages to customers. They take each customer on a journey. This begins weeks before your meter is installed (usually in the pavement outside your home) when the company will visit and give you a booklet, explaining that the water meter is coming.
Because they want you to have time to adjust to having a meter and become more water efficient, they will not convert your household to metered charges for three months. The meter is connected to the water supply but for that period Southern Water will continue to charge you under the existing system based on the rateable value of your property.
On the day of installation they will visit again, giving you a further booklet explaining this and informing you of your tariff choices. For example, you may opt for the Changeover Tariff. This means that, if your metered bill is higher than your old bill, Southern Water will reduce the bill for the first two years – and you do not have to pay the difference. However, customers can opt to change to metered charges as soon as their meter is installed if they wish to.
Every customer will be visited twice – before and on the day of installation. Southern Water staff will knock on the door and explain everything to you. If you are out, they will leave the booklets which also contain information about the need for metering and the financial help available if bills  go up.
The visits to customers to give them these booklets are supplemented by a mobile exhibition unit which will be in the area on or around the day of installation, so that staff can give advice and answer questions.
Signs, which look like blue drips, will appear in your street a week before your meter is installed. They will change to pink drips on the day of installation. They steer customers to a host of information, including a free online water audit of your home and details of some free and discounted priced water-efficiency products – which can be found at www.yourwatermeter.co.uk
Huge savings … 45,000 cut their bills by £11 a month
Nearly 45,000 households are now paying cheaper water bills due to Southern Water’s programme to provide water meters across Kent, Sussex and Hampshire. Average savings are £11 a month, with some families saving nearly £100 a month due to the new, fairer system of charging offered by meters. Total savings to date are nearly £4 million.
Previously, water bills were calculated according to the rateable value of a property which meant there was no financial incentive to use water wisely. People could be profligate in their use as it made no difference to their bills if they left their taps on all day and all night.
But now water meters ensure that customers pay for every unit consumed, which motivates them to become more water efficient, for example, turning off the tap when brushing their teeth.
Director of Metering Darren Bentham says: “Unit charging is the system which has long been adopted by all of the other utilities but the water industry has been an anomaly in that you could keep your taps turned on all night and still pay the same.
“It’s of paramount importance that we all make the best use of water resources across the South East and meters will encourage us all to save millions of litres of water every day.”
Some 31,000 customers, predominantly large families who are big water consumers and live in properties with low rateable values, have experienced an increase in bills, but Southern Water has introduced a range of tariff options and financial help schemes to assist.
Those who need financial assistance are also offered a visit from a ‘Green Doctor’ who will fit free water efficient devices such as tap aerators and low consumption shower heads. Thirty-five percent of targeted customers take advantage of the expert help of ‘Green Doctors’ who are also able to arrange for customers in hardship to receive advice from Income Max Direct – an independent body which advises customers what benefits they are entitled to.  They have already helped customers to secure nearly £1 million in additional benefits, easing issues of affordability.
However, the majority of customers are heeding the advice offered by the company’s award-winning water efficiency programme to change their behaviour towards water consumption and reduce their bills.
www.southernwater.co.uk