Water on rateable value not water meter

[2015mom]

Hey I am looking at ways of reducing my water bills. I am stuck with water because we are on rateable value and I will not change to water meter because it will be more expensive because I have two little ones and they have baths everyday.

On rateable value it doesn't matter how much water I use as I will be charged the exact same amount each month.

Water saving devices are only worthwhile getting to save the environment and saving on water that way but it will not affect my bills.

Has anybody been able to reduce their water bills on rateable value?

[Pestilence13610]

Only way I can think of is to move to a house with a lower rateable value.

[Pythonesque]

Little kids baths might not necessarily mean high water usage - I don't know. I presume they share one lot of bath water that isn't especially deep?

Try to find some realistic water usage estimates and work out whether getting a meter might actualy be the way to go, then you can indeed look at saving water = saving money.

[2015mom]

I have done the calculator check to see if a water meter would be cheaper and it came out more expensive for us. I can try the trial for a year but I don't want to change to a water meter because eventually we will want another child so more people in house vs bedrooms mean more water consumption

Best to stay in rateable value, it's only £27 a month... I was just curious to see if there was any way to reduce it

[BarbaraofSeville]

Your rateable value sounds quite cheap to be honest. Ours is nearly £40 pm and we have a small ex LA semi so nowhere near naice that you would expect to have a high rateable value.

The rateable values seem to be all random anyway. Our old house was less than half the rates of our new house so the new rates being more than double was a bit of a shock, especially since the new house cost less than 10% more than the old one .

[pennycarbonara]

I don't want to change to a water meter because eventually we will want another child so more people in house vs bedrooms mean more water consumption

Have you checked if your water company has a schedule for fitting meters to all suitable homes by a certain year? I don't think all of them do, but it's something worth being aware of for the future.

[Wildernesstips]

If you are on benefits or on a low income, you can ask your water company if you can go on a very low rate. I think that if you have more bedrooms than people (or something like that), you will almost certainly benefit from having a water meter.

[Bluntness100]

I have more bedrooms than people and I'm not on a meter, In fact imy bill is lower than the ops, bizarrely one of the engineers who came to investigate installing a meter, and there has been three in two years, said the better the area and higher cost the house with lower amount of inhabitants, the lower the water cost. I'm quite rural. It makes little to no sense.

Genuinely I don't think uou can get it lower than now. You either get a meter and use less water to reduce costs or you stay as is. My sister in law is on a meter and her cost is huge in comparison to us, same amount of bedrooms and inhabitants and I'm less than twenty pounds a month.

[JugglingMum17]

Thank you all for your input it has been very helpful.

Yes I think £27 a month is not bad considering my two sons have a bath everyday

[marriednotdead]

My water bill is currently on rateable value which has always suited me. We have historically had quite high consumption although it's a bit better now.

We've been notified that water meters are being installed in all properties (London) and will become compulsory no more than 2 years after the installation date- we can go metered earlier if we wish. Long term, I think this will happen everywhere.