The recommendations of a new Environment Agency report could help lower customer bills, experts claimed.
Compulsory water metering will have a positive effect on utilities bills, a leading industry group said today.
The new analysis from the Consumer Council for Water (CCW) comes in the wake of a report from the Environment Agency, which called for compulsory metering in homes across England and Wales. Meters help to cut water bills by making customers more aware of their consumption, which in turn discourages wastage.
Water meters work in a similar way to gas and electricity meters, by recording the consumption level of the household it is installed in. Representatives of water firms check the devices in order to know how much to charge on customer bills.
A CCW spokesman commented: "There is evidence to suggest that people with a water meter could, if they use less water, save money… the majority of consumers understand that metering is the safest and the fairest way to pay."
Water watchdog Ofwat announced recently that customer bills would go up by around four percent this year. The CCW is a consumer group that handles around 20,000 complaints from customers about water providers each year.
"The majority of complaints we actually get [are] always usually about water meters and people who actually want meters installed and the company aren't sorting it out quickly enough," the spokesman added.
