MP hails success in water charge campaign

Geoffrey Cox, MP for Torridge and West Devon, has expressed "great satisfaction" at the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne's announcement yesterday in the Autumn Statement that every householder in the South West will benefit from at least a £50 annual reduction of their water bills from April 2013.

The MP, who made reference to the issue in his maiden speech in parliament in 2005, has consistently campaigned over the last seven years for recognition of the inequitable burden on South West Water consumers who have to pay charges approximately £157 a year higher than the national average.

Geoffrey Cox said: “I have held several meetings with Cabinet Ministers in recent months to push the case for South West Water consumers and so I am delighted that the Conservative Chancellor has accepted the need for greater fairness on water charges in the South West, which Labour, despite constant campaigning and lobbying by me and others, refused to concede."

He continued: “This discount will bring welcome relief to hard-pressed pensioners, families on low wages and many others in Torridge and West Devon who have found the excessively high water charges an impossible burden in recent years. It was always wrong that 3% of the population should bear the sole burden of paying for 30% of the nation's coastline.”