Metering & tariffs

Water poverty is becoming an urgent issue because the current charging system is not protecting vulnerable customers. As recognised in the Walker Review, charging according to volume used (i.e., on a meter) is the fairest way to pay, and also enables the introduction of tariffs that can protect the vulnerable and incentivise efficient use of water.

Our research and evaluation work in this area clusters around the following areas of interest:

• Impact of water metering initiatives on household water use; for example, we’re involved in the evaluation of Southern Water’s Universal Metering programme

• The interaction between water metering, affordability, water efficiency and other household-focused initiatives; for example, we recently evaluated water savings from South West Water’s WaterCare programme, which combined water efficiency retrofit with benefits checks

• Customers’ views on what they want when it comes to metering and tariffs; for example, we ran focus groups for Southern Water to inform the development of their transitional tariff for newly metered customers

• Technologies for improving the usefulness of metering to customers and water companies’; for example, we’re part of the @qua Thematic Network that is exploring the role of ICT in managing demand