Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that households are not charged higher assessed water tariffs where a water meter cannot be installed due to infrastructure limitations beyond the customer’s control.

On water metering, individual water companies are responsible for deciding how best to manage water demand, including their approach to metering. Customers charged on an unmeasured basis are typically charged by reference to the rateable value of the property. Where a meter cannot be installed, customers are instead offered an assessed charge based on one of the following: the number of bedrooms, the type of property, the number of people living in a property or the company’s average metered bill. Additional information about unmeasured charging can be found on the Ofwat website.