Trivial things you don't understand/mildly annoy you

[tans]

Despite their financial shenanigans, Thames are generally the lowest per month water utility due to the economies of scale supporting London.  Most of the regional ones are nearly always up to double the cost.

Thames Water are absolute cunts.

[4D]

Sorry to jump over the childcare costs, and wanted to ask about water bills. Ours has jumped from £78 per month to £96 per month. That's with Anglian Water and we're not on a meter.

2 questions I suppose, does that sound high? (My dad is on a meter and apparently his bills are over half as much with Thames i think) and should I try and get onto a meter?

Yes, get a meter and you'll halve that

[No Longer Posh Red]

Sorry to jump over the childcare costs, and wanted to ask about water bills. Ours has jumped from £78 per month to £96 per month. That's with Anglian Water and we're not on a meter.

2 questions I suppose, does that sound high? (My dad is on a meter and apparently his bills are over half as much with Thames i think) and should I try and get onto a meter?

I'm currently paying £18 a month with Anglian Water, because I was paying based on 3 Adults after my son moved out, so built up a bit of a credit (in fairness it was about £50 month with him here).

We do have a meter & think it's lower for a couple, probably more for a larger family

[RobertT]

Thames Water are absolute cunts.

I worked for them, I do not disagree with that statement when placed at the door of the ownership over the years.

[Bob's Orange]

Yes, get a meter and you'll halve that

Cheers.

I'm currently paying £18 a month with Anglian Water, because I was paying based on 3 Adults after my son moved out, so built up a bit of a credit (in fairness it was about £50 month with him here).

We do have a meter & think it's lower for a couple, probably more for a larger family

Hmm there is only 2 for us also. Based on what you are saying we are paying way over the odds. Just applied online to get a meter.

[tans]

I worked for them, I do not disagree with that statement when placed at the door of the ownership over the years.

The people running that company should not be allowed anywhere near running a business!

Reminds me of someone else, oh wait!

[Samdy Gray]

Yes. Cheaper childcare is better for everyone. We have the 5th highest childcare costs in the world.

https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/07/highest-childcare-costs-by-country/

I say this as someone who never paid much as we were lucky enough to be in a position where my wife chose not to work while the children were very young so I don't have a horse in the game.

Interesting. I don't have a horse in the game either, so in my ignorance the hourly rate doesn't seem extortionate. I didn't realise how the UK compared to other countries.

[McGurk's Missus]

Cheers.

Hmm there is only 2 for us also. Based on what you are saying we are paying way over the odds. Just applied online to get a meter.

Yep metered is the way to go BO. When not on a metered rate, your water is usually worked out on the RV {Rateable Value - which the only value is lining the effing pockets of the water companies}. RV probably might work out ok for a family of four. Anything less I'd say a metered option works better.

It's high time that water companies were legally forced to stop automatically putting customers on an RV. Similarly like other utilities, it's often presented and worded to the customer like you don't have any other choice {see TV Licence, etc}. There should probably be some system whereby it's linked to council/electorate on a basic register or census data, and from that they can have an algorithm that goes ''oh yeah, that house only has two people in, we'll send them a later about a preferred metered option.'' or  ''This house has 6 people in it, ok we'll drop them the RV letter'' or ''this person lives in the arse end of nowhere, we'll send them a letter about connecting to us, or even offer up signposting for advice on providing their own water supply''. But nope, always all about the bloody shareholder interests first.

For reference, when I was on RV it was around £50pm {fifty notes per month for fucking water, for a person living on their ones - fuckkkk offff. It would have worked out cheaper for me to bulk buy and have bottled water delivered}. I refused to pay it and requested a meter {even their little ''how much water do you use'' calculator, came to under the average per month amount for one person's usage} and claimed backdated overpayments from the point/date I requested a meter. But in good old utilities fare fashion - they fucked up and didn't fit the metering until about 6months after. Yet the continued to charge me the RV...I ended up getting the overpayments back via Resolver.

I now pay just £10pm via standing order {some bullshit about they can't do DD at less than £20pm} and they still get shitty with me. Yet I constantly remind them, that even at £10pm, or £30 per quarter,  that's still more than my total usage {inc surface and sewerage charges}.

In short - utilities in total cunt shocker. Defo get metered though 

[Bob's Orange]

Yep metered is the way to go BO. When not on a metered rate, your water is usually worked out on the RV {Rateable Value - which the only value is lining the effing pockets of the water companies}. RV probably might work out ok for a family of four. Anything less I'd say a metered option works better.

It's high time that water companies were legally forced to stop automatically putting customers on an RV. Similarly like other utilities, it's often presented and worded to the customer like you don't have any other choice {see TV Licence, etc}. There should probably be some system whereby it's linked to council/electorate on a basic register or census data, and from that they can have an algorithm that goes ''oh yeah, that house only has two people in, we'll send them a later about a preferred metered option.'' or  ''This house has 6 people in it, ok we'll drop them the RV letter'' or ''this person lives in the arse end of nowhere, we'll send them a letter about connecting to us, or even offer up signposting for advice on providing their own water supply''. But nope, always all about the bloody shareholder interests first.

For reference, when I was on RV it was around £50pm {fifty notes per month for fucking water, for a person living on their ones - fuckkkk offff. It would have worked out cheaper for me to bulk buy and have bottled water delivered}. I refused to pay it and requested a meter {even their little ''how much water do you use'' calculator, came to under the average per month amount for one person's usage} and claimed backdated overpayments from the point/date I requested a meter. But in good old utilities fare fashion - they fucked up and didn't fit the metering until about 6months after. Yet the continued to charge me the RV...I ended up getting the overpayments back via Resolver.

I now pay just £10pm via standing order {some bullshit about they can't do DD at less than £20pm} and they still get shitty with me. Yet I constantly remind them, that even at £10pm, or £30 per quarter,  that's still more than my total usage {inc surface and sewerage charges}.

In short - utilities in total cunt shocker. Defo get metered though 

That's pretty eye opening, I wish I'd bothered to look into this earlier, we've probably been paying over the odds since we moved in here.

[McGurk's Missus]

That's pretty eye opening, I wish I'd bothered to look into this earlier, we've probably been paying over the odds since we moved in here.

I can't remember if I did or if I just think I did, but I seem to vaguely remember posting on here about my water utility issues {it overlapped with my ongoing electricity bill saga - one where they were trying to charge me over £150 for one days usage  } about three years ago. Maybe I didn't.

How long you been in Dav now? But yeah unfortunately, it's one of those things that customers probably don't really look at other than a ''fuck me, water bill is a bit pricey'' as if they were supplying liquid gold {effectively is to the shareholders I guess}. One of the reasons being is due to the fact that as a customer, we have no negotiating power -  for most, it's a case of ''here's you water supplier, here's the price. Suck it up buttercup'' type of scenario. So I can see why you would potentially pass it off and just pay the bill.

Obviously if you do switch yourself over to a water meter {I'm assuming you are heavily weighting yourself in doing so}, just make sure you get it agreed that your metered charges start from the date you request the meter - rather than the date you start using it. This will cover you to at least recoup some of the continued RV charges, if they fuck up your appointment to fit the meter. But what should happen is they'll backdate and then calculate an average, based on your first three months meter readings. You'll have to email them it but if you fall in a low usage period of the year, this will work out quite well for you. As matched against your current high RV rate, you'll get the difference back {minus your actual cubic metres reading average}.

Good luck

[Leggett]

I don't know who's making money from nurseries but it certainly isn't the staff. When my kids were young my wife worked at the nursery part time effectively for free, as her wages were the same as the fees. Later I was lucky enough that my work was in the pilot for the 30 hours free childcare funding. Both kids are now in secondary school but I know the fees have jumped since they were there.

[Tails]

I don't know who's making money from nurseries but it certainly isn't the staff. When my kids were young my wife worked at the nursery part time effectively for free, as her wages were the same as the fees. Later I was lucky enough that my work was in the pilot for the 30 hours free childcare funding. Both kids are now in secondary school but I know the fees have jumped since they were there.

My daughter only goes in for a day and a half thankfully as I do compressed hours and my wife works part time, but even with that the price is insane. We're fortunate we have the government grant as that brings the price down significantly, but our nursery has just announced a big price hike.

[4D]

Good old Labour....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg19gx7vl4o

[horlock07]

Good old Labour....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg19gx7vl4o

But this lifted directly from the piece (with a link suggesting it is backed up my some primary evidential base) suggests that there is already a two tier system in place which these changes (which I haven't studied so cannot comment upon) seem to be trying to address....

Official figures, external show that offenders from ethnic minorities consistently get longer sentences than white offenders for indictable offences.

[Bob's Orange]

I believe the Labour MP is trying to get the rules changed so that everyone is treated equally regardless of their background? These rules about the ethnicity are NOT put in place by the government i believe?

I think both Labour and Conservatives are in agreement, if I understand it correctly.