Introduction
Petition Number: P-06-1521
Petition title: Give park home residents in Wales the right to a water meter
Text of petition:
Residents of some park home sites in Wales are paying in excess of £60 a month in water bills, despite living in small single and double units. Currently, many site owners divide their total bill by the number of homes on the park, before passing the bill on to residents. This means there is no incentive for site owners to fix leaks, as they know residents will foot the bill regardless.
The Welsh Government could stop this injustice by giving park home residents the right to a water meter.
Additional information:
Providing park home residents with the right to have a water meter fitted so that they are only charged for their individual usage would mirror the situation for the majority of homeowners across the country.
Doing so would ensure that park home residents only pay for what they use, ending the current injustice whereby many are being charged for leaks which are not their responsibility.
It would also genuinely make maintaining pipes and repairing leaks the responsibility of the site owner (as it should be), encouraging them to carry out repairs and upgrades.
In turn, this would reduce the environmental damage which is being caused by huge amounts of water being leaked under private park home sites in Wales.
Park home residents at one site in Flintshire, North Wales, have been getting charged more than £65 a month for water by their site owner, when evidence suggests they should be paying around £16 a month. This injustice must be stopped.
The text provided above is submitted by the petitioner. The petitions team make every effort to ensure it preserves their authentic voice. This text has not been verified for accuracy, or errors, and may contain unverified opinions or assertions. [EH1]
1. Background
The Water Resale Order 2006 sets out rules that aim to ensure people are not overcharged if they pay someone other than the water company for their water or sewerage services. This includes people who pay a Park Home site owner.
The Order is made by Ofwat (the water sector regulator), rather than UK or Welsh Ministers, under powers contained in Section 150 of the Water Industry Act 1991.
Ofwat’s guidance that accompanies the Order states:
Anybody who resells water or sewerage services must charge no more than the amount they are charged by the water company. They are also allowed to charge a reasonable administration charge.
The administration charge is set to cover administration costs and the maintenance of meters. It can only be charged if it is not recovered by any other arrangement, such as through the rent or mobile home pitch fee. Resellers can recover around £5 each year for those without a meter and £10 for those with a meter. The administration charge applies to each purchaser and not to each occupant.
The Order sets out a number of ways the bill from the water reseller (the site owner in this instance) should be shared between the purchasers.
This includes circumstances where no purchasers are metered, all purchasers are metered, and some purchasers are metered and others are not. Ofwat’s website sets out that if no purchasers are metered, the water reseller must charge for water in one of the following six ways:
§ split equally between the purchasers, or in proportion to:
§ the number of people in each property;
§ the rateable value of each property;
§ the total floor space of each property;
§ the number of bedrooms in each property; or
§ half the bill according to method 1 (split equally between purchasers) and the other half of the bill according to any one of methods 2-5.
If the reseller charges more than the average bill in the region, they must show that they calculated the bill using one of these methods.
The issue of water meters for park homes was raised in the House of Commons in 2023. A petition - Water meters for park homes – was debated on 17 January 2023. It requested:
… that the House of Commons urge the Government to require all water companies to provide each residential mobile home on a protected site with water meters and ensure that they fit meters for free on request (excepting Scotland).
In response the UK Government highlighted the Water Resale Order, and outlined other options for concerned constituents, including raising the matter with the site owner or the licensing authority (which would be the local authority).
The UK Government also noted that if there are specific concerns about leaks not being fixed by a site owner, residents could contact the water company supplying the site as it can request that significant leaks are fixed by a reseller.
Water companies have a power under Section 75 of the Water Industry Act 1991, to require a property owner to repair a leak in their private supply pipe or fittings, within a specified time period.
If a property owner does not repair the leak within the specified time period, the water company can, under the Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999, undertake the work itself and recover costs from the owner.
Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water has published an information booklet on dealing with private leaks.
2. Welsh Government action
The Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs, Huw Irranca-Davies MS, has written to the Committee in relation to this petition.
The Cabinet Secretary sates “disputes about the resale of water are a private matter” and refers to the charging methods and water company powers outlined above. With respect to the latter, he says:
If charges are high due to leakage residents have the right to ask their water company to investigate. If a leak is found the water company will serve notice on the site owner for it to be repaired. As reducing leakage from the network is a priority for water companies they will respond to anyone who reports a possible leak whether they are the property owner, or bill payer.
3. Welsh Parliament action
At the time of writing this briefing Senedd Research is unable to identify this issue having been discussed previously in the Senedd, other than in relation to the petition.
Every effort is made to ensure that the information contained in this briefing is correct at the time of publication. Readers should be aware that these briefings are not necessarily updated or otherwise amended to reflect subsequent changes.