BOSSES at Anglian Water today denied they were trying to force households into installing water meters by changing their prices.

BOSSES at Anglian Water today denied they were trying to force households into installing water meters by changing their prices.

The cost of water to unmetered homes is going up by 8.3per cent at the end of this month but homes with a meter will see the cost of water going up by only 6.8pc.

A spokesman for the company said the differential price increase was necessary because people were using more water and it needed to cover the cost of that.

He said: “If a house with a meter uses more water they get charged more. If an unmetered property uses more water the only way we can recoup that is by putting up the price.”

Over the last 15 years the amount put through Anglian Water's pipes has remained constant at about 1.2 billion litres a day.

The spokesman said: “That is despite the problem of leakage being almost eradicated. If the increase in demand continues we will have to look for other sources of water and we want to encourage people to use water wisely.

“Most homes are using much more water than they have in the past and we do want customers to think about that.

“We still want to encourage people to move to metered water - all new homes now have water meters and in some places meters are being installed and will be activated if people move home.”

Anglian Water announced at the end of last year that 30,000 properties in the Ipswich area would have meters fitted whether they wanted to use them or not.

Households will be sent bills showing what their bill would be if they opted to switch to a metered supply.

“We are very much hoping to persuade more people to switch to meters, but that is not the thinking behind this price increase,” the spokesman said.

Have you got a water meter at home? Has it had an impact on your water bill? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk.