Could you save money by switching to a water meter?

The money is collected by the local authority and passed onto Scottish Water.

If your bill is high, you might be wondering whether you could save money by installing a water meter and joining the 416 households that already pay Scottish Water directly, and only for the water they actually use.

For anyone going down this route Scottish Water will provide a standard meter free of charge, but you will have to pay for a survey to determine the size and location of the meter.

Plus, you are responsible for the cost of installation.

A standard survey costs around £100 and you must pay the survey fee at the time of application.

The installation costs of an above-ground meter vary from £195 to £665, but the typical 20mm meter costs about £222 to install.

You might also have to pay for any alterations to the property to fit the meter.

The meter remains the property of Scottish Water, but you are liable for any damage or replacement costs.

If you do not own the property then you must have the owner’s permission to get a meter installed.

For Gail Walker, Citizens Advice Scotland’s water policy manager, anyone thinking about installing a meter should first consider whether the benefits would outweigh these costs.

“You should make sure that these initial costs and your expected charges for water do mean that it is worthwhile to change from paying the charge for water with the council tax,” she said.

It is also worth factoring in that Scottish Water’s quarterly bills can be complicated in comparison to annual council tax bills.

They could include an annual fixed charge, which is around £150 for a meter up to 20mm, as well as a volumetric charge.

The latter relates to the cost of water per cubic metre and comes in at £2.38 for the first 25 cubic metres, then 86 per cubic metre thereafter.

Volumetric waste water charges are £3.08 for the first 23.7 cubic metres, then £1.46.

You might also have to pay property and roads drainage charges, totalling £94 for a band D property.

Scottish Water estimates that each person in Scotland uses 150 litres of water a day, or 54,750 a year.

So, you could be looking at an annual bill of about £450 for a Band D property with a single occupant.

The total is more than the average unmetered water bill at £363, but the actual cost depends on the size of your property and the number of inhabitants.

If you have a large family, or a family that uses a lot of water, perhaps because you have young children, then metered water is likely to be much more expensive than an unmetered supply.

If you are unsure about your water consumption, there is a calculator on Scottish Water's website (www.scottishwater.co.uk) to help you work out whether you would be better off with a water meter.

Ms Walker said: “It would be more expensive for the vast majority of Scottish households to use metered water rather than the current system.

In addition to the significant costs of installing a meter, standing charges for metered properties are high.

And people would then have to pay the cost of the actual water they use, which includes a 95 per cent charge for wastewater.”

You should be particularly wary of switching to a meter if you are entitled to a council tax reduction or discount, because you could lose any linked discount on your water charges of up to 25%.

The Scottish Government is also consulting on increasing the current maximum 25% discount for water charges.

Households where all occupants are exempt from council tax are also exempt from water charges, so again, opting for a metered water supply could prove expensive.

Walker at Citizens Advice Scotland said: “Given that Scotland does not suffer from water shortages, and given the significant cost to consumers of installing and using meters, we don’t believe that metered water is a sensible option for the vast majority of Scottish households at present.”