Kingsbridge

South Hams District Council (SHDC) has called on South West Water (SWW) to lower its water rates.

The council's Scrutiny pressure group recently talked with Ian McGuffog, business planning manager for SWW.

They discussed the crippling water charges local residents are facing across the region.

But to Scrutiny's dismay, Mr McGuffog said that SWW would not be reducing prices in the near future.

The news will anger the firm's 1.6 million customers who have complained strongly against the high level of water bills.

"The Scrutiny Group was extremely disappointed to hear that there is no sign of this changing in the near future," said Cllr Cathie Pannell, chair of Scrutiny on SHDC.

Cllr Cathie Pannell, Scrutiny: "The Scrutiny Group was extremely disappointed to hear that there is no sign of this changing in the near future."

SWW's bills, which are already the highest in the country, have recently got even steeper.

In February, SWW announced that metered customers will see an average increase of around 12.5 per cent and unmeasured customers, an average increase of 16.1 per cent in their charges for 2007/08.

The charges were approved by regulator Ofwat.

SWW blames the high rates on the increasing cost of keeping the coastal region's sea water clean.

"Historically, customers in the South West have faced higher than average bills because of the region's relatively small population and the cost of maintaining water infrastructure spread over a very wide area," SWW said in a statement.

"We have also invested heavily in modernising the region's water and sewerage services following a century of little or no investment prior to privatization.

"The £2bn we have invested since 1989 is delivering real and beneficial results for customers, the South West and the South West's economy.

"We now have the cleanest rivers in the country, some of the cleanest bathing waters in Europe, we are hitting new highs in the quality of drinking water with 99.96 per cent compliance and becoming one of the best at preventing leaks."

Exeter-based SWW saw operating profits jump 10.8 per cent to £156.8m in the 12 months to 30 April 2007.

Full-year revenues rose by £33m to £381.5m.