All posts in the topic Church water bills (Short link)

From: Julia Gasper Date: Jun 27 12:51 UTC Short link

The water companies have announced that they are going to abolish the
charitable status of churches and charge them the full business rate for water
usage. They are going to
charge according to the size of the roof and the land adjoining the building.
It will mean HUGE increases which the churches and their congregations cannot
afford. That will also entail a reduction in what they send to charitable
causes.
This is a link to an online petition set up to persuade the government to step
in:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ChurchWaterBills

At present the petition has less than eleven thousand signatures. Fifteen
thousand are needed to be considered by the PM and it is unlikely to succeed
unless it has a lot more than that. FIFTY thousand might really make a
difference. So please pass this link on to everybody you know of a sympathetic
point of view.

 By charging for rain falling on roof spaces, the water companies are laying
claim to every drop of rain that falls in the British Isles. That is immoral.
The water companies do not own the water - they only charge for supplying it
via various man-made systems.
Recently, our local water company announced that, after spending tens of
millions on installing water meters - and charging the users for this - they
are abandoning the whole principle of charging by metered usage, and returning
to a policy of charging according to the rateable value of your house. This
removes all incentive to moderate your use, and of course it tends to maximize
their profits. Large increases in price can now be concealed and passed off as
a "transition" to a different system.
 Another recent scam has been that the water companies have in the past two
years abrogated responsibility for maintaining supply pipes inside the
boundaries of private property, and pressurised people to take out insurance in
case these pipes burst or leak. Guess who profits from the insurance policy?
The water company of course. Until 2005 or so, these pipes were always the
responsibility of the water company, and had to be repaired at their cost.
After all, that's what we are paying for. NOT the water itself, but the service
of supplying it.