There are no plans to introduce water meters for customers, says Manx Utilities Authority chairman Dr Alex Allinson.

He said the potential costs and benefits of water metering were assessed for the MUA by Cornwall Energy, which found the case was ’very weak’, mainly because water supplies were rarely limited.

The survey found the cost of introducing water meters and the continuing expense outweighed any potential benefits.

’Manx Utilities’ costs of supplying water to a home or a business are mostly fixed, therefore the one-off costs of installing meters and the operational costs of maintaining, reading and replacing meters would not be recovered through any of the savings,’ said Dr Allinson.

’The introduction of widespread water metering would increase the costs of supplying water and this cost would need to be borne by customers benefiting from water connections.

’As such, overall costs for customers would be likely to increase albeit some customers may consider that they have greater control over their bills as a result.’

He said the MUA would consider ’periodically’ whether circumstances had changed to make metering worthwhile.

Some high-volume users of water, such as farmers, had industrial meters and paid the higher of either the rateable value or the amount metered.

’Although some people believe that bringing in water meters would reduce their bills, the reality is that, often, it is the contrary.’

Talks had been held with the Manx National Farmers’ Union to see if the system could be improved for the agriculture sector, he said.