Latest news with #waterBill
The Herald Scotland
21-07-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Water regulation should be overhauled, review recommends
The Government-commissioned team was tasked to carry out the largest review of the sector since privatisation in the face of widespread public anger over pollution, bills and bosses' bonuses, although ministers ruled out nationalising water companies. Water minister Emma Hardy told broadcasters on Monday that the system is 'broken', but did not commit to how many of the 88 suggestions would be accepted by Whitehall. The report, published on Monday morning, recommended far-reaching changes to the way the water system is regulated as it called the current landscape 'fragmented and overlapping'. For England, proposals include abolishing Ofwat, which oversees how much water companies in England and Wales can charge for services, and the Drinking Water Inspectorate, which ensures that public water supplies are safe. The report also advises removing the regulatory roles of the Environment Agency and Natural England, which monitor the sector's impact on nature, such as companies illegally dumping sewage into waterways. Instead, a 'joined-up' and 'powerful' single integrated water regulator should be established, according to the recommendations. In Wales, Ofwat's economic responsibilities would be integrated into Natural Resources Wales, the review said. Ms Hardy told BBC Breakfast that ministers would be taking 'a proper look' at the paper 'all the way through the summer'. Asked if all the recommendations would be made law, she told the programme: 'What we'll do is we'll have a proper look at it all the way through the summer and the intention is that we're going to introduce a White Paper to spell out exactly what we're going to do on water reform.' Ms Hardy said that the Government would 'introduce a water Bill next year, which will change the law', but added: 'Exactly how many out of the 88 we're going to do or not going to do, then we'll work that out in the next few months.' The current system has faced intense criticism for overseeing water companies during the years they paid out shareholders and accrued large debts while ageing infrastructure crumbled and sewage spills skyrocketed. Author Sir Jon said the review has 'tried to attack the problem from all sides' but warned that bills are going to rise by 30% over the next five years. 'There are some inescapable facts here,' he said. 'The cost of producing water and dealing with our wastewater is going up.' Sir Jon later told Times Radio that regulators have failed to work together to make the sector deliver and blamed the Government for not giving clear direction. Sir Jon Cunliffe is a former Bank of England deputy governor (Anna Gordon/PA) 'It's the failure of Government to balance out all the different pressures on water,' he said, adding that firms 'need to perform better' and 'be funded to invest'. The Government backed the commission's findings, with Ms Hardy saying consumers have been 'failed time and time again'. Speaking on Times Radio, she said 'root-and-branch reform' is needed to fix the crisis and told listeners the Government is considering a piece of primary legislation to deliver many of the proposed changes. Ms Hardy also described trust in the water industry as at 'the lowest ever level' and criticised executives for handing out pay rises and bonuses. 'Everyone knows the system is broken,' she said. 'And they give themselves huge pay rises.' However, the minister also ruled out supporting Government intervention to cap pay in the private sector. Ms Hardy said: 'I don't think as Government we should say what private companies should pay. 'But I will say – read the room. Look how angry and furious people are.' Other key recommendations in the review include: – Expanding the role of the voluntary Consumer Council for Water into an ombudsman to give stronger protection to customers and a clearer route to resolving complaints. – Significant improvements to environmental regulation, including the process where companies collect and analyse wastewater discharges they make into waterways, by introducing more digitalisation, automation, third-party assurance and inspections. – Tightening oversight of water company ownership and governance through measures such as new regulatory powers to block changes to water company ownership and 'minimum capital' requirements so that companies are less reliant on debt. – Introducing legislative reforms to better manage public health risks in water, recognising the many people who swim, surf and enjoy other water-based activities. – Fundamentally resetting economic regulation, including a new 'supervisory' approach that supports tailored decisions and earlier interventions in water company oversight.
Daily Mail
06-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
I pay my water bill annually: Could this get me rejected for a mortgage? DAVID HOLLINGWORTH replies
I pay my water bill annually, which costs about £500 per year. This usually works fine for me, but I've recently become concerned about how it affects my credit score. I've been checking my credit report online as I need to remortgage soon. I noticed that, as this year's water bill hasn't been sent to me yet, it shows on my credit report as having a £500 debt to the water company. Could this affect my mortgage application and is there anything I can do about it? My credit score is otherwise good. I don't have a meter, so am charged based on my home's rateable value rather than the amount of water I use. David Hollingworth replies: There's a lot to think about when searching for the right mortgage. Getting the best interest rate is key, but you also need to consider whether you and the property will meet the lender's criteria. There are several things borrowers need to keep in mind here, including their credit score and any marks on their file which could raise lender eyebrows. Can you afford this mortgage? The lender will want to understand your income, and also see a breakdown of your regular financial commitments and everyday outgoings. Those figures will feed into the lender's affordability calculation to determine the amount of borrowing that is affordable, and the maximum mortgage available to you. Although all lenders work on similar principles, they will each have their own calculation. The final amount you are offered will not only depend on income and outgoings, but also how the lender's 'stress test'. This is when they look at your proposed monthly mortgage payments, and check whether you could still afford them if the rate went up in future. If you are applying for a longer fixed rate deal, you may be able to borrow more. Many lenders have also eased back their mortgage stress rates after the regulator made clarifications around the options open to lenders. Are you a good borrower? The lender will also want to look at your credit profile to see if you are able to borrow responsibly. Lenders will be able to see your current credit commitments and track record of payments through your credit file, which will be held with an agency such as Experian or Equifax. They will also generally apply their own credit scoring to the application. There's no exact science to this and each lender will take a different approach. Having no track record of borrowing and paying it back can be an issue, as well as more obvious issues like late and missing payments. This is because it is harder for the lender to understand the risk. Having credit in place is not a bad thing as long as payments are up to date, which will help to demonstrate that you will be a good risk. A lower credit score could affect whether the lender can offer the level of borrowing required, or even offer lending at all. Credit reference agencies give easy access to your credit file now, so it's straightforward to be able to see what a lender is looking at for little or no expense. They may also provide an indicative credit score to give a feel of how you might be seen by a prospective lender. These don't necessarily tally with exactly the same approach that a lender will take but will give a useful benchmark. Will the water bill make a difference? You say your credit score is good, despite the water bill issue. This should provide you with confidence regarding your mortgage application, albeit no guarantee. The fact that the water bill is showing on your file is clearly temporary and the lender will be able to understand that it is a utilities bill. If that appeared to be £500 per month then a lender may have questions about whether it is something that would need to be factored into affordability, but it should be apparent that's not the case here. Some lenders already factor the average cost of utilities into their affordability modelling. It's therefore probably unlikely that the water bill will be an issue for you. However, if you are concerned that affordability is tight, speaking to a mortgage adviser should help to give a better overall picture. They will be able to look at deals from across the market and compare those to the options from your current lender. Once you have assessed the options, they can help put the right deal in place. David Hollingworth is This is Money's mortgage expert and a broker at L&C Mortgages - one of Britain's leading specialists. He is ready to answer your home loan questions, whether you are buying your first home, trying to remortgage amid the rates chaos or looking to plan further ahead. If you would like to ask him a question about mortgages, email: editor@ with the subject line: Mortgage help Please include as many details as possible in your question in order for him to respond in-depth. David will do his best to reply to your message in a forthcoming column, but he won't be able to answer everyone or correspond privately with readers. Nothing in his replies constitutes regulated financial advice. Published questions are sometimes edited for brevity or other reasons.
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
This 1 hack could help you slash your water usage by up to 50% — and it only costs $5
Whether you're a renter or a homeowner, you may be looking for ways to save money around the house. Thanks to Jeff Bezos, you can now become a landlord for as little as $100 — and no, you don't have to deal with tenants or fix freezers. Here's how I'm 49 years old and have nothing saved for retirement — what should I do? Don't panic. Here are 5 of the easiest ways you can catch up (and fast) Nervous about the stock market in 2025? Find out how you can access this $1B private real estate fund (with as little as $10) Some solutions, like boiling water in an electric kettle instead of on the stove, may not save a noticeable amount of money. Others, such as installing a heat pump or switching to energy-efficient appliances, can make a big difference — but could come with high upfront costs. Other money-saving solutions require more of a sacrifice, like giving up your morning latte on the way to work or cutting back on streaming services. There is, however, a hack that will cost very little, lead to noticeable savings and improve your quality of life. This hack, which typically costs less than $5 up front, can meaningfully reduce your water bill by cutting the amount of water you normally would use by 30% to 50% while actually improving the tap's water pressure. This seemingly magical device? A faucet aerator. 'It's a tiny but powerful device that screws onto the tip of a kitchen faucet,' Luke Wooffindin, a licensed plumber and HVAC expert at Safeguard Plumbing, told Homes & Gardens. The aerator's primary purpose 'is to control water from the faucet by mixing it with air,' he said. While it 'produces a soft, steady flow that feels forceful,' it actually uses a lot less water. It also controls the direction of the water, resulting in less splashing and more effective cleaning. 'It doesn't exactly increase the pressure from your plumbing system, but it creates the sensation of strong pressure. It does this by narrowing and shaping the water stream,' David Lewis, owner of Mission AC and Plumbing, told Homes & Gardens. Prices vary for the aerator, but hardware stores like Lowe's and Ace Hardware as well as online retailers like Amazon sell aerators ranging from less than $5 to around $10. Some sell sets of four stainless steel aerators for less than $10. It's a simple DIY project to install this tiny attachment, but make sure you buy the right size and type. Aerators work by forcing the faucet water through a flow restrictor and a metal or plastic mesh screen. The screen breaks the water stream into smaller streams while small holes in the side of the aerator draw in air that mixes with the water. Read more: This is how American car dealers use the '4-square method' to make big profits off you — and how you can ensure you pay a fair price for all your vehicle costs If your faucet already has an aerator, as most modern ones do, replacing it for one with a lower flow rate can make all the difference. 'The faucet aerators can help conserve 30% to 50% of the water coming out of the faucet, or even more, depending on the type of aerator installed,' said Wooffindin. He added, 'For example, installing a 1.0 GPM (gallons-per-minute) aerator instead of the standard 2.2 GPM aerator would mean saving well over a gallon for every minute the faucet is left running.' Faucets account for 20% of indoor household water usage, so conserving 50% of water you would normally use would translate to reasonable savings. It may not seem like much, but water bills have risen dramatically in recent years and may keep rising — so these savings could start to add up. The average American uses more than 82 gallons of water per day at home and spends more than $1,000 per year on water, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The agency says they can save more than $380 annually from retrofitting with WaterSense-labeled fixtures and ENERGY STAR certified appliances. In addition to improving your water fixtures, you can also conserve water by fixing leaky pipes and changing behaviors such as taking shorter showers, refraining from running the water when brushing your teeth and only washing full loads of laundry. Reducing your home water use will not only help you save money, but can contribute to saving the planet. While water scarcity is a growing global issue, responsible household water use play a small part in tackling this issue — starting with a tiny $5 faucet aerator. 'In some cities, minimum wage workers must work over 20 hours per month just to cover their water bills, exceeding EPA affordability thresholds,' according to Bluefield Research, a water sector research firm. Their analysis found that household water and sewer bills rose 4.6% from 2023 to 2024 and surged 24% in the five years to 2024. Bluefield attributes the rising costs to 'inflation, aging infrastructure and slow federal funding distribution.' In many places, water infrastructure is 50 to 100 years old. Bluefield analyst Eric Bindler told AARP federal government funding fell from about a third of the cost of providing municipal water in the 1970s to about 4% by 2010. Want an extra $1,300,000 when you retire? Dave Ramsey says this 7-step plan 'works every single time' to kill debt, get rich in America — and that 'anyone' can do it Rich, young Americans are ditching the stormy stock market — here are the alternative assets they're banking on instead Robert Kiyosaki warns of a 'Greater Depression' coming to the US — with millions of Americans going poor. But he says these 2 'easy-money' assets will bring in 'great wealth'. How to get in now Here are 5 'must have' items that Americans (almost) always overpay for — and very quickly regret. How many are hurting you? This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
