Professor Tom Collins:

Once a gauge to determine the level of water use in a household has been installed, it will be open to future Governments to impose a charge. It is not the excessive usage charge which is the Trojan horse. It is actually about physical infrastructure. The forum has not considered whether a water meter should be installed in every new house, but I anticipate that the forum would approve of such a measure. It is good management of a scarce resource. There will always be the potential, once a resource can be measured, that it can be charged for.