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Boris you are wrong. People should be encouraged to have showers, above all before going on the tube. The potential health implications to the poorest need to be thought about carefully, the Romans wanted Londoners to wash, nothing has changed.

- Andrew, London, 01/09/2009 20:53
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"I don't have kids yet my taxed go to support everyone elses. - Anthony, London"

And do you expect people you have never met before to be able to read, write and count?

- Alan Griffiths, Forest Gate, LONDON. UK, 01/09/2009 20:47
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This is a country with one the highest annual rainfalls in the world and that total is rising not falling.We are not short of water. Remember the 2007 floods which decimated large parts of the West of England and Yorkshire. We do not need to meter our water consumption because we have more than enough of the stuff. This proposal is a stealth tax....plain and simple

- Andrew Nicholls, Ely ,England, 01/09/2009 16:22
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About time, common sense really.

- Dirk Diggler, Soho, London, 01/09/2009 15:26
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Thanks Mark Lee. I didn't expand on the reasoning. I do have a stopcock inside my house. The problem is I live in a very short cul-de-sac, only five houses all in a terraced row. The water main tees-off a main in an adjacent road and runs under all of our houses about five feet down, where the main tees-off again and rises up to each house, which is where I thought they could install the meter...apparently not.

They wouldn't install a meter that they couldn't read or service from the street/front garden. So to facilitate that they'd need to run a new main along the road and T-off again to the individual houses. I can't see them doing that for just five houses, especially as the existing mains stopcock rises toward the back of each house.

If they need to do that, and they do indeed do that, then fine. If they were to pitch up one day and install one in my kitchen on the main just before the stopcock, I'll take a dimmer view.

- Escobar-Alop-Lop, Camden County, 01/09/2009 15:09
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"saved a shedload by getting a meter installed"

And as soon as the entire UK population are saving shed-loads by using water meters, up will water prices go because water companies no longer make those huge profits they have been used to.

Nothing ever changes in bankrupt Britain!

- John Smith, Londonistan, EUSSR, 01/09/2009 15:01
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OK except for the excuse that it's needed because of "higher temperatures caused by climate change."

Since temperatures stabilised in 1998 and since 2003 have been steadily falling what are they talking about?

- Christina Speight, london, UK, 01/09/2009 14:53
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Lucky Del Boy did not have a water meter in his flat!!

One problem with water meters is flats and shared housing where it is difficult to apportion water use to specific tennents. A problem that of course affects many properties in London.

- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex, 01/09/2009 14:48
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I think they are trying to top each other making life unbearable, recycle this, recycle that, bulbs you cant read by, pay to drive into London, pay to park, don't drink, don't smoke, worst thing is they ignore the rules themselves, I HATE POLITICIANS

- Peter Woods, Essex, 01/09/2009 14:41
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No Sue, I have a full time job.

I mean the people that come over to this country, claim benefits and have babies like bunnies whilst living in a million pound house payed by the tax payers

- Josh, London, 01/09/2009 14:22
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Good idea - use more - pay more - seems fair to me.
BTW My cousin found out that he had had a leak in his underground pipes for years. Only came to light when recently widowed, he decided to have a meter installed.
The digits were going round even when he had everything turned off.
Fixed now, but he's wondering if it was the reason why he had to have his house underpinned some years ago.

Viva Boris!

- Ethan, UK, 01/09/2009 14:06
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Well this would make heavy users pay more. I get fed up with subsidizing half the planet. I don't have kids yet my taxed go to support everyone elses, I use very little gas but end up paying more to support everyone else, I use very few council services but my poll tax is through the roof. Personal responsibility people. Enough is enough.

Anyway, the vast majority of people will save money. However if you have 15 kids and wash a million loads of washign a week you will be in trouble on a meter.

- Anthony, London, 01/09/2009 14:06
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Well Julie from London, "We must meter the Fire Brigade for their water use". Let's hope your home doesn't catch fire any time soon or if it does I hope you have a water meter that the Fire Brigade can happily plug into.

- Jl, London, 01/09/2009 13:43
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I think this is a great, I live by myself and therefore use far less water than large families who pay the same. As for people moaning that water should be free... the water is pumped from underground, or reservoirs or wherever its coming from to your house, its cleaned and purified and all the dirt taken out of it. All the infrastructure and manpower required to do this does not come free. If you want free water get yourself cut off and gather rainwater in containers in your garden or on the roof. That would be free but I don't imagine you'd like it half as much!

- Kathy, London, 01/09/2009 13:35
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I'm fully in favour of water meters as long as the powers that be demand that EVERY HOUSEHOLD pays for what they use.

This might be the first step in ensuring that the people on benefits etc pay their water bills, the same as people who are employed have to.

- Mrs, London UK, 01/09/2009 13:34
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Water meters are okay, but try reading one in the pouring rain and dark that's situated six bleedin' feet down a bleedin' hole!

- Ted, London, 01/09/2009 13:32
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Totally agree. If it is metered people will take much more care. As it is people WASTE water. Terrible

- Essie, London, 01/09/2009 13:29
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It's a perfectly sensible idea in principle. People should pay for the water they use. It'll actually save many people money. For houses, I have no problem with compulsion, provided the householder is not charged anything for installation of the meter.

But the practical details must be noted. In old properties converted into multiple flats, the plumbing is a tangled and uncharted mess of pipes under people's floors. It would be expensive to convert this to one meter per flat - the flat-owners should not have to pay. Even worse, it would involve ripping up their carpets and floors. Quite possibly they'd have to move out while the work took place. In short, it's not practical or fair for metering to become universal any time soon.

- Nigel, London, 01/09/2009 13:26
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Escobar-Alop-Lop - over the past few years water companies have changed which properties they will and won't install meters in - for example, they will now fit internal meters to flats. If you can find a stopcock in your home, they will fit a meter. Might be worth giving the water company another call.

- Mark Lee, Vauxhall, 01/09/2009 13:19
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Water meters are now being installed, whether anyone wants it or not, in my area of north London. This will occur wherever old water mains are replaced with new pipes.

People should know that this is a laborious, disruptive, expensive process, and will take years or decades to complete for the whole of the UK.

- Kate, London, 01/09/2009 12:59
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Can we take it that Johnson is prepared to pay the extra cost to the householders affected by the inevitable price rises. Why not channel the water from rivers which flow down to the sea instead of being channeled in to the empty reservoirs. The man is a fool.
T H Leeds

- Thomas Hayes, Leeds UK, 01/09/2009 12:59
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Josh I'm a little confused. Council tenants DO pay community charge, who says they don't? But if you happen to be a social security scrounger they won't pay any Council tax, nor will they pay a water bill whether metered or not. So there again, those that work pay, those that don't get it all for nothing. I'm happy to have a water meter because at the moment I'm paying the same water rates for my one bedroom flat as the five bedroom house next door!

- Sue, Orpington, Kent, 01/09/2009 12:46
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Water meters are great - I have had one for over 15 years. My water bill is lower by over £150 per year compared with water rates and I only pay for the water I use. Some of my neighbours water their lawns etc with hoses and pay higher water rates - if they had meters they'd be more careful with the water they use. Boris is right, everyone should have a water meter.

- Mark, London, 01/09/2009 12:16
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Water should be 'free' in the UK... seems there is plenty falling all year round!

- Sanjay, Hounslow, UK, 01/09/2009 12:09
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If they want to meter my house, then fine, they can do it because I know I'll benefit from it, but Essex Water will have a fight on their hands because I was told five years ago that I couldn't have a meter because it wasn't technically possible for them to fit one.

So, if a meter does find its way to my address, without the obvious need for infrastructure changes, then I'll be looking for the difference I would have benefitted by by having a metered supply for the intervening period.

Mike Newland, are the illegal immigrnats that Boris Johnson wants to give citizenship not currently using water?

- Escobar-Alop-Lop, Camden County, 01/09/2009 12:04
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People without water meters just let taps run.

- Richard Edmunds, Rayleigh Essex, 01/09/2009 12:03
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I'm not normally a Boris fan but this is an excellent idea. I have been flabbergasted at the waste of some of my neighbours (leaving an overflow pipe running constantly for a month) and it is time that people were forced to take some responsibility for their water use. Why should we be subsidising other people's excessive use?

It's a shame to see alarmist headlines about "£20 extra charges" - I saved a shedload by getting a meter installed - and the installation itself is free.

- Mark Lee, Vauxhall, 01/09/2009 11:56
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If we are paying by the drop, can we at least get water that isn't chalked up?

- Josh, London, 01/09/2009 11:55
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Nabil H

You say: "Boris, you have just fallen out of grace with me..."

Then you say: "your little privileged clique, namely The Tories..."

Kind of guggests you were never a fan.

Back to the real world - at what point does the article suggest rationing?

Have you read the Draft Water Strategy? It doesn't mention rationing there either.

- Claudius, Planet Earth, 01/09/2009 11:47
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A water meter is fitted every time a home is newly occupied ?????

However I would support the switching off of ALL of the water features inside the M5, even those that re-circulate water evaporate and loose water - so No fountains in Trafalgar Square, no Diana memorial, no swimming pools of any sort etc. We must meter the Fire Brigade for their water use and of course all water on the street cause by a pipe leakage will result in a GLA fine to the water company.

Closer to the reality of what people might be asking for

- Julie, London, England, 01/09/2009 11:45
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"a move which could add £20 to some bills"
But more realistically will force people to not waste water. Come on now, how many people do you know who have a meter? And how many of them save money over the amount they would pay on a fixed rate? Pretty much all of them I'd wager.

- Bob, Cheam, 01/09/2009 11:45
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First of all they should put water meters on office buidlings - we pay the same at our office as I do for my home and its about 30 times the size of my little flat...

- Ali, London, UK, 01/09/2009 11:27
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Its what makes me laugh about Labour's rhetoric on the environment, they have done nothing to help reduce water wastage in 13 years, water meters should be standard for all dwellings.

As for sending kids to schools miles away from their homes, that just adds to ever increasing carbon emmissions & traffic congestion, Labour's whole policy is out of touch.

- Emelia Wong, London, 01/09/2009 11:19
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Excellent, though I hope that the ES will do a series of articles on what it means for an increase in temperature of 2 degrees Celsius. Not the oh! brill as many readers will think but horror of what it actually means.

- William, Hay~Heath UK, 01/09/2009 10:56
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Boris, you have just fallen out of grace with me...
It is already bad enough that we pay for water, now you wish to ration it.
Do you really think that by "saving" water here there will be more elsewhere (in the Sahara for instance)?.
This stupid proposal you are pushing is also being pushed by New Labour, but they put it on the back burner because of a looming election.
All of this because you do not dare to ask your friends in the Water Companies to reduce wastage, and invest in better infrastructure to collect and store water.
In fact it is altogether a disgrace that the management of water was privatised in the first place, and who did? - my of course, your little privileged clique, namely The Tories...

- Nabil H, London, UK, 01/09/2009 10:56
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Oooh i like the idea of Darius.
And how is it that people that live in council houses dont have to pay council tax? Surely they use it more than the tax payers do, sitting at home all day..

- Josh, London, 01/09/2009 10:46
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Mr Johnson will have in mind making sure there is enough water for the entire population of Turkey he wants to be given the right to live in Britain plus all the illegal immigrants he wants to be given citizenship.

- Mike Newland, London, England, 01/09/2009 10:18
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excellent idea. make people pay for the water they actually use. My water bill has gone down by a third since I got a meter....why should I subsidise the baths of a family that chooses to have three kids ? pay for your own water and you might be more expedient in the use of it.

- Squiz, Islington, 01/09/2009 10:05
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HOW LONG BEFORE THEY WILL HAVE METERS FOR US TO BREATHE AIR ?

- Mr S.Port, London, 01/09/2009 09:44
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People should pay for what water they use. In Germany, they have had water meters for years!! I believe this will drastically reduce wastage, since it will after all be money down the drain!

- Wq Ex Pat, outside UK, 01/09/2009 09:43
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Quite right, the more you use, the more you pay.
Could you introduce the same fairness for council taxes , Boris - calling it the "community charge" might be appropriate?

- Darius, London UK, 01/09/2009 09:43
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