Kitchen Garden Forum

As water plays a key part for gardeners, you might like to check the fine print on the back of your water rate bill and see if you're entitled to a reduction. We're supplied by Thames Water but this may apply in other areas too.
Look at the back of your water rate bill and see if there's a clause which advises how your bill is calculated. Thames Water state charges include highway drainage (we don't have any street drains n our roa !!) and that if surface water from your property does not drain into their sewers but into soakaways, there is a £17.50 annual reduction off the bill

We've only just realised that we're entitled to this discount, but alas cannot back-claim for the 28 years we've lived in our house.

Some of you may be similarly entitled. Worth checking ! (For Thames Water the phone number to ring and check is 0845 9200 805. Quote your Account No).

Wow, Primrose, that's absolutely marvellous! I am with Thames Water, so will check later when I get home. I'm sure my gutters drain into a soak away!! Brilliant.
Thankyou for the very useful information!

You're welcome. The reduction will help to pay my chiropractor's fees which I'm now having to pay as a result of lugging heavy watering cans around because of the hosepipe ban !

I know exactly what you mean, we form a 2-man bucket chain to do the back garden!

I wonder if the reduction would apply if you collected all the rain water into waterbutts?

Don't think you get a water rates reducion for using water butts as we have four of them and the "fine print" doesn't mention them. The only benefit is that rainwater from roofs isn't wasted and can be recycled onto the garden.

Not sure about about water butts maybe worth a email to the water board. I now have a 650L "water-butt" in my back garden I intend to get another normal butt in the top of the garden for a gravity fed reservoir. The project for this winter is a new hedge and raised beds for vegetables. This will be fed by the butt on a solar powered irrigation system. Why I hear you ask?

In all honesty I can be quite lazy and often work late so the crops often go neglected. Also my living is computers so I am also a sad techy.

I was given the advice about reducing water bills when we lived in our previous house in Topsham Devon. When I moved here ,Norfolk,I checked the water bill and asked about a reduction of the bill due to drainage of rainwater going into a ditch on the property. Anglian Water asked for evidence and that was really issue to supply. The surveyors report included that information and we sent a copy to Anglian Water and got the reduction. Incidentally we have found that generally speaking a bill calculated with a meter is less than half of one without - so get metering if you haven`t already!!

Peejo