United Utilities Pre-Payment Meters

EDM number 1108 in 1995-96, proposed by Janet Anderson on 08/07/1996.

That this House notes that United Utilities, the water company for the North West, has begun introducing pre-payment meters into homes which, for the most part, house low income families who have fallen into arrears with their bills; further notes that if families do not maintain payments to these meters they face having their supply cut off immediately following an emergency week's service; believes that there have already been such instances, and that there are families in the North West who have been deprived of the means to wash, to cook, to clean their clothes and house and of sanitation; considers that there are other methods of recovering arrears which do not carry the immediate threat of disconnection as pre-payment water meters do; condemns United Utilities, who made pre-tax profits of ú272.6 million in the last year, for using a method of recovery which inevitably leads to a spiral of disconnections of services; and calls upon the company to cancel their programme of installation of pre-payment water meters.

This motion has been signed by a total of 56 MPs.