From BBC Business today:
The average annual water and sewerage bill is expected to rise by 6% in England and Wales, up £27 to £473, says suppliers’ trade body Water UK.
In Scotland, water and waste charges will go up by 8.8%, a rise of £36.
From BBC Scotland yesterday:
Water bills in Scotland will increase by 8.8% from April.
Scottish Water said the rise was needed to provide “significant investment” in replacing ageing infrastructure and improving services.
The publicly-owned company dismissed reports that it was already planning similar-sized increases for a further two years beyond 2024.
This year’s increase follows a 5% rise in 2023 and a 4.2% increase in 2022.
There’s something missing from both reports. See it not there?
The average annual cost in England is £473 and in Scotland it’s….?
From the Daily Record in July 2023:
Research by the House of Commons Library found the annual average bill was £410 north of the border compared to £448 elsewhere.
That was easy to find. The BBC is well-staffed with graduate researchers. Funny how they missed that piece of public information.
Also, missing, how good is the water you’re paying for?
‘Forever chemicals’ found in drinking water sources across England’
Glasgow water explained: Why Glasgow has the best tap water in the world
Tap water in the UK is not all fluoridated. Some areas in England have fluoride added to the water but Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales do not.
https://fullfact.org/health/tap-water-spring-water-fluoride-heavy-metals/
Fluoride in Drinking Water May Be Harming Our Children. We Need to Address It. https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/2020/10/16/fluoride-in-drinking-water-may-be-harming-our-children-we-need-to-address-it/
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Talking-up Scotland 
Thanks for this, Prof. Perhaps they’re like me and just don’t know where to look for things
OR, given that the way their circulation numbers are dropping, perhaps they don’t have the facilities or cash to check things any more. (Or even write things themselves instead of getting them from a pool and uploading them, un altered and unchecked?
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Don’t even need to look elsewhere – just do the maths using the 8.8% and the £36. That tells you the existing cost is £410 and the new cost is £446.
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Thanks, but I’m dyscalculic and so, although confident of the theory, practical application can be uncertain. (Once, in a surveying tutorial, I managed to calculate that something which was patently 6ft below sea level was 3ft above it. Don’t ask how – I still don’t know! I followed the steps correctly.)
So “just” doing the maths – even simple calculations – isn’t as quick and easy as it might at first appear.
OTOH, maybe the MSM didn’t furnish the Scottish figure because the English readers would have struggled to do it, whereas Scots could!
I mean, it could have been a compliment to superior Scottish Education.
Couldn’t it…? 😀
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Aye, and unlike the 6% in E&W, not a penny of the 8.8% rise in Scotland will go to shareholders…
The greater costs are on the sewerage and treatment side, but with English water companies teetering on bankruptcy, little improvement in their polluted rivers may be expected….
In Scotland they have to also deal with all those ‘un-monitored discharges’ that have been inflated beyond their importance in the media by ignorant politicians… They’ll be in for at least a year to measure next to nothing of significance…
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The reports of droughts were vaguely confusing. Thames flooding.
Discharging nuclear missiles in the Atlantic. Nuclear contamination leaking into the ocean.
Too much bottled water. There should be recyclable drinking vessels by Law. .
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“Too much bottled water. There should be recyclable drinking vessels by Law“
Agreed but…
Over the past few years I’ve come to have some sympathy with Londoners about he need for bottled water. In fact I found myself buying a bottle.
Their water is unbelievably foul, only just tolerable in tea. If you either hold your nose or are very thirsty!
My daughter took her (Scottish-born) pet rabbit down when she was working in London and the poor little thing was getting dehydrated. The situation didn’t improve until she bought it bottled water, which was wolfed down. Even dumb animals aren’t that dumb!
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