Saturday 26 February 2011

South West Water Price Increases

On my extensive travels through Europe and also some in America is appears that it is common practice for visitors to be required to pay local taxes for each nights' stay.
Much of the high cost of water in the South West is due to the cost of improving the water quality so that the region is more attractive to visitors. While some commentators are suggesting that the cost of our water is spread to other regions in the UK I would content that a "local tax" or surcharge should be payable by each visitor per night in the South West region.
Typically there are over 60 million visitor nights spent here each year and if one pound per night surcharge was placed on each visitor who enjoys our amenities then the increase in water charges could be  kept to less than 3% instead of 5.1% which then keeps the increase below the inflation figure. 

3 comments:

  1. Anything that reduces these increases must be a good idea. We can not go on dipping into our own pockets

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is a great idea. £1 on the cost of a room per night would easily be affordable. However, I suspect hotels, B&Bs etc may have a different view. There is also the cost of administration etc.
    Perhaps the supply of an essential utility such as water should never have been privatised for profit in the first place. OFWAT has been useless as a regulator - continually approving above inflation price rises for example.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Just to be Devil's Advocate - what happens if you are on hols in Cornwall from your home in Devon? You pay twice?

    ReplyDelete