Tynwald has approved Manx Utilities’ new pricing strategy.

The strategy will see inflation-only rises in electricity and a balancing of water and sewerage costs.

It will lead to the household water rate slashed by nearly a third - but the toilet tax more than doubled from April next year.

Manx Utilities chairman Dr Alex Allinson said he was convinced the strategy will ’provide certainty and stability to the prices of water, sewage and electricity services to all our customers now and in the next five years’.

He said the authority is committed to a long-term financial plan that enables it to pay off its debts.

In October last year, Tynwald agreed to write £95m off the MU’s debt, but it remains an eye-watering £470m, which Dr Allinson admitted is a ’ridiculous amount’.

Last year water and sewerage rates were frozen with the authority pledging to return with a pricing strategy that more accurately reflects the cost of delivering services and meets debt repayment schedules. Crucially, said Dr Allinson, it is one that is ’fairer and protects customers from financial hardship’.

He said that without last year’s £95m debt write-off, the water and sewerage bill for the average domestic customer would have risen from the current £598 yo £810 by 2022.

Under the new strategy, the increase will be significantly less - rising to £654 by 2022.

Dr Allinson told Tynwald that households will be ’£156 better due to the actions of this government’.

Bill Shimmins (Middle) proposed an amendment that called on MU to develop proposals on home generation ’feed-in’ tariffs, electric vehicles and electric heating for buildings and to report back to Tynwald with progress by March.

This was unanimously approved by the court.

Speaker Juan Watterson claimed domestic customers were cross-subsidising corporate users by between 30p and 50p a unit. He also criticised the £95m write-off, saying ’our children’s money has ben given away’. ’There is no such thing as free money,’ he said.

Dr Allinson disagreed, insisting the authority will pay off its debts, which without the £95m reduction were ’almost unaffordable without inflicting financial pain on people’.

Water rates will be cut more than 32% next year from the current 341p in the pound to 230p in the pound, plus inflation.

But the sewerage rate will be increased from the current 98p in the pound to 210p in the pound from April next year, plus inflation.

There will be further increases each year at the prevailing rate of inflation. For most customers there will be no overall impact as the reduction in the water rate will match the increase in the sewerage rate.