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Scheme to Reduce your Thames Water Bill by 50%

:-D

:-D

Peas & Cues
There's a scheme called "WaterSure Plus" that is designed to help anyone who has a gross household income of less than £19,201pa if you live within Greater London Area, £16,105 if you live outside.

If you are accepted into the scheme, they will reduce your bill by 50%, no matter what tarrif you are on.

Worth a look.
 
Another tip for people who are not on a meter is to ensure the water company has the correct details about where you live. A few years back I moved from a 1 bed flat to another 1 bed flat both supplied by Thames Water.

My first bill for the new place was a lot higher than the previous place and when I queried it I found out they thought my new place was a 3 bed house. When no meter exists they base your bill on the size of your home.
 
The chargeable value that they use to calculate un-measured properties was set back in march 1990 by the local authorities. As properties have been redeveloped since then, there's always a chance that the details of the changes haven't been picked up.

Definitely worth the time to check.
 
maomao said:
I have a mortgage and credit cards now so I guess not but I don't think they ever got my name. Never went any further than a load of letters I didn't read.
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Remembering back I also did Thames Water for about 6 years of water. Moved into a brand new house which part of a small development. Thames Water got into a bit of a mess with the allocation of meters. They never sent us a letter or called round we never contacted them. Six years later when I was moving out Thames Water handily announced an amnesty for people who weren't paying but were using water. It was nice timing.

Anyway they appear to be getting their own back today as the water supply to my part of London seems to be totally borked.
 
Water is one of the utilities and should never have been privatised.

meters are a problem for some people on low incomes with high use rates and do nothing to save water overall - far more water leaks from the supply network before the domestic meters
 
When I saw the OP about the WaterSure Plus I figured it couldn't help me since I'm in a Council flat and the Council have always collected the water rates with the rent. Then today I got a letter from Tower Hamlets Homes, the Council's managing agents, telling me that from 1st October Thames Water will be collecting directly.

I gather the move to direct collection by Thames Water is taking place in other Boroughs.

Be interesting to see how things work out. At the moment the Council are collecting about £254.00 from me annually. That's on a rateable value basis. I don't have a water meter, although I've seen it suggested that being in a bedsit I would probably benefit from having one fitted.

In the meantime I wonder if I should amuse myself by asking the Council if I'm entitled to a refund following the judgment against Southwark Council referred to in these articles :

London council tenants in line for water payouts - BBC News

Nor any drop to drink - Nearly Legal: Housing Law News and Comment

and Southwark Council's response to the judgement (PDF file) which goes into a lot of detail about it.

I assume that judgment and it's potential financial consequences underlies the decision to move towards direct collection from Social Housing tenants.
 
Lurdan said:
When I saw the OP about the WaterSure Plus I figured it couldn't help me since I'm in a Council flat and the Council have always collected the water rates with the rent. Then today I got a letter from Tower Hamlets Homes, the Council's managing agents, telling me that from 1st October Thames Water will be collecting directly.

I gather the move to direct collection by Thames Water is taking place in other Boroughs.

Be interesting to see how things work out. At the moment the Council are collecting about £254.00 from me annually. That's on a rateable value basis. I don't have a water meter, although I've seen it suggested that being in a bedsit I would probably benefit from having one fitted.

In the meantime I wonder if I should amuse myself by asking the Council if I'm entitled to a refund following the judgment against Southwark Council referred to in these articles :

London council tenants in line for water payouts - BBC News

Nor any drop to drink - Nearly Legal: Housing Law News and Comment

and Southwark Council's response to the judgement (PDF file) which goes into a lot of detail about it.

I assume that judgment and it's potential financial consequences underlies the decision to move towards direct collection from Social Housing tenants.
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...that and pressure from OFWAT for them to look after vulnerable customers.

I'm assuming that the bill you'll get will be for half a year, so it'll be interesting to see how it compares with what you're paying at the moment annually.

You should get a letter from them letting you know that you're going to be billed directly by them from October. The WaterSure Plus application form will be attached.

You'll get the bill about a month or so before it's due on 1 Oct, so it gives you time to look into getting a meter if you think you might be better off on one
 
Cheers. Not sure what Thames Water's policy is about fitting meters in Tower Hamlets. We're not in the zone where they are currently rolling them out (probably because over 80% of the housing stock here is flats).

If the bill they issue is more than I'm currently paying I could apply for one and if there is some reason they don't want to install one I could then go on their assessed rate

Assessed Household Charge - Thames Water

which should be a tenner a year less than I'm currently paying. I presume WaterSure Plus, which on the face of it I'd qualify for, would then reduce that by 50%.

Of course it will be interesting to see how the "small print" applies in reality at each stage of this :)
 
Lurdan said:
Cheers. Not sure what Thames Water's policy is about fitting meters in Tower Hamlets. We're not in the zone where they are currently rolling them out (probably because over 80% of the housing stock here is flats).

If the bill they issue is more than I'm currently paying I could apply for one and if there is some reason they don't want to install one I could then go on their assessed rate

Assessed Household Charge - Thames Water

which should be a tenner a year less than I'm currently paying. I presume WaterSure Plus, which on the face of it I'd qualify for, would then reduce that by 50%.

Of course it will be interesting to see how the "small print" applies in reality at each stage of this :)
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You've done your homework.


If they need to fit more than 2 meters internally to be able to record all your consumption, it will be deemed unmeterable and you'll be offered the assessed household charge. If you've got access to a communal area that has water ( like a laundry room ) then they wouldn't be able to meter you as well.

If you apply for a meter, you'll get asked details about the size of your home and how many people live there. This information is used to work out the AHC if you can't be metered.

The AHC will start from the date of your meter application.
 
:-D said:
You've done your homework.


If they need to fit more than 2 meters internally to be able to record all your consumption, it will be deemed unmeterable and you'll be offered the assessed household charge. If you've got access to a communal area that has water ( like a laundry room ) then they wouldn't be able to meter you as well.

If you apply for a meter, you'll get asked details about the size of your home and how many people live there. This information is used to work out the AHC if you can't be metered.

The AHC will start from the date of your meter application.
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I did the assessed charge as soon as I realised I could (split supply plus communal water tanks on the roof) and it was a decent discount initially as iirc the non assessed Thames bills at the time were based on a 3 bed house.


Thames also do a single occupancy discount which is applicable to all properties which is about on par with the 1 bed flat discount when I applied
 
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We got a letter a few months back from Thames Water, saying they were installing meters for our block (outside in the street) - my heart sank, I mean we are fairly low usage, but this is a poor area and anyone with young children or who is a carer or who has extended family living with them is going to be worse off - I just don't agree with it in principle really.

They said we could all stay on water rates for a year after the installation, but could ask to switch over if we wanted.

Then I heard nothing. I didn't notice anything being installed at all. So am not sure what is going on. I may therefore apply to have my rates reduced, our income is up and down however.
 
We've recently had new meters put in to replace the old faulty ones. We've not heard anything from Thames Water about being switched from fixed to metered. The meters are in a place which is inaccessible to residents so they would have to be read by Thames Water. Its clear they are never going to read them which begs the question - why put them in?
 
Teaboy said:
We've recently had new meters put in to replace the old faulty ones. We've not heard anything from Thames Water about being switched from fixed to metered. The meters are in a place which is inaccessible to residents so they would have to be read by Thames Water. Its clear they are never going to read them which begs the question - why put them in?
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Probably to meet a quota in the same way energy companies have spent several years fitting absolutely pointless non functioning 'smart' meters in people's homes.
 
maomao said:
Probably to meet a quota in the same way energy companies have spent several years fitting absolutely pointless non functioning 'smart' meters in people's homes.
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Couple of things to mention here. While nobody has particularly excelled themselves in the smart meter rollout - the meters are neither non-functioning nor pointless.

The old SMETS1 meters will get an over the air firmware upgrade (was planned to be by end of year but who knows).

Secondly, we need a smarter energy grid. With climate and decarbonisation challenges, we need a way of balancing supply and demand and smart meters will provide national grid etc with a much clearer picture of that.

The mistake that the government made in all this was giving responsibility for the smart meter installations to the energy retailers, who then made it all about benefits to the customer and 'see how much you are using'. Nobody buys into this because you won't save that much (in the short term at least) and because nobody trusts the energy companies. And they are all in competition and so you don't have a well co-ordinated effort, which you kind of need for one of the biggest and most challenging programmes we have seen for a long time.

They should have delegated it to the regional distribution networks and made it compulsory as a national infrastructure upgrade. And made it about the benefits re decarbonisation and future demand for energy. These organisations also have a much more suitable engineering workforce to get the job done. But late for that now mind.

But they are as far away as it is possible to be from pointless. They're just not a huge amount of use to you personally.

There is a similar need for water meters.
 
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discobastard said:
But they are far away as it is possible to be from. They're just not a huge amount of use to you personally.
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Well it's no bloody use to anyone at all given I'm not with the company that fitted it any more (and have since fallen out with them permanently). It was great for the few months it was working.
 
Yeah, the roll out was shit but the idea of a truly smart grid is a good one. Video here which talks about it at the end.

 
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discobastard said:
This really means other people's bills are higher and are subsidising those that don't pay. On top of subsidising those that have means tested discounts.

On top of WaterSure, TW have a charity that helps people out in difficult circumstances.

Home - Thames Water Trust Fund
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No it doesn't. Thames Water will charge whatever the market can bear. If this scheme was discontinued, they wouldn't reduce the rates other customers pay, they'd just make more in profit.
 
maomao said:
Probably to meet a quota in the same way energy companies have spent several years fitting absolutely pointless non functioning 'smart' meters in people's homes.
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Oh that is the other one - constant badgering from edf to have a smart meter... no I do not want a gadget in my home that serves me no useful purpose, I am actually not going to use less energy if I see it ticking up on the smart meter. I am always fairly frugal about most things, and use the energy I use to do the things I want to do, I am not wanton about it, and I am not going to turn my computer or TV off and sit in a dark room to cut consumption, sorry.

I do support efforts to provide more sustainable/green sources of power, of course. I have a flat roof, as does the entire block, we could have solar panels (which would be free energy) installed but no, working out exactly what we owe edf at any given moment and spending millions rolling that out across a multitude of service providers and their customers is infinitely more important for some reason.
 
It might be a silly question, but when and how did this privatisation of water happen in England?

It sounds horrendous. While I might have no problem in expecting people with private swimming pools or otherwise excessive use of water being expected to pay, especially in times of water shortage, it is beyond silly that ordinary households should need to factor in, in the weekly or monthly budget, how much water to use in the same way as how much electricity or gas for the cooking and heating. It is enough of a problem trying to minimise use of electricity and gas in the winter months. I would really hate to add water to that list.

It probably makes more sense than it seems to me, though. There is that.:)
 
Epona said:
Oh that is the other one - constant badgering from edf to have a smart meter... no I do not want a gadget in my home that serves me no useful purpose, I am actually not going to use less energy if I see it ticking up on the smart meter. I am always fairly frugal about most things, and use the energy I use to do the things I want to do, I am not wanton about it, and I am not going to turn my computer or TV off and sit in a dark room to cut consumption, sorry.
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Again, having a truly smart grid will be a major asset for the UK in the future (watch the video). The roll out and the reasons given for smart meters were complete shit but it doesn't make them shit in themselves. You really should get one.

I do support efforts to provide more sustainable/green sources of power, of course. I have a flat roof, as does the entire block, we could have solar panels (which would be free energy) installed but no, working out exactly what we owe edf at any given moment and spending millions rolling that out across a multitude of service providers and their customers is infinitely more important for some reason.
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That fucking twat Cameron fucked Solar PV in this country well and truly. I mean he fucked this country in many ways but with PV we were well on our way to having them on virtually every roof. The industry was all set up and billions had been spent and then he removed all the subsidies and it was no longer financially viable. The greenest government ever.

Stupid self important twat.
 
scifisam said:
No it doesn't. Thames Water will charge whatever the market can bear. If this scheme was discontinued, they wouldn't reduce the rates other customers pay, they'd just make more in profit.
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This is incorrect. There are price reviews every 5 years, bill profile modelling, fines and incentives across multiple areas of work.
 
discobastard said:
This is incorrect. There are price reviews every 5 years, bill profile modelling, fines and incentives across multiple areas of work.
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You're talking at cross purposes because she has me on ignore (as I do her) and she never accounts for ignored content on the page. You were blaming non payers for increasing prices whereas she thinks you're saying that the assistance scheme puts prices up for other customers.
 
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