Mr. Douglas Millican:

I would phrase it slightly differently. It is a policy choice of the Scottish Government to charge through the council tax banding structure. There are two key drivers for this. First, it enables Scottish Water to support the Government's social policy objective of having much higher charges for people living in big houses than for those living in small houses. This policy is, therefore, a form of proxy for affordability. Second, this approach avoids the inherent overhead costs of having meters installed, to which Mr. Jones alluded, including the cost of fitting, maintaining and reading meters. This is a way of keeping total system costs down, thus improving affordability for all customers. We are doing a trial to identify what levers could give most effect to water conservation and whether providing a financial incentive gives a sustained benefit. As the trial is at an early stage, I cannot comment on whether, on balance, metering would provide a sustained incentive for substantially lower consumption.