THE recent announcement by North West Water of an average £9 reduction in charges next year is a derisory amount in view of the escalation in charges in the last 10 years and is the lowest of any regional water authority.
The rebate is evidently a one-off before further increases in future years.
Charges have increased regularly each year above inflation in order to comply with EU directories but this investment programme will be completed in 2000. Not that we can look forward to changes stabilising as North West Water wishes to make further increases of 8.1 per cent above inflation each year until 2005 and has only temporarily been restricted to 2.5 per cent above inflation to 2000 by the Director General of Water Services who will review again next year.
Beyond 2000, we are quite likely to see further hefty increases above inflation and concerned readers may wish to express their views directly to OFWAT (NW), Suite 902, 9th Floor, Bridgewater House, Whitworth Street, Manchester M1 6LT.
P ATHERTON, Belvedere Road, Blackburn.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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