Water bills 'will soar from 2010'

The shortfall is thought to be �20m per year

Water bills will soar from from 2010 unless costs are brought under control, according to the Consumer Council.

It has accused the Northern Ireland Water company of "costly mistakes, flaky data and flawed business plans".

The council called on Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy to guarantee future bills would be fair.

A spokesman for NI Water said until the executive agreed a charging procedure projections of domestic bills must be regarded only as a broad estimate.

In February, Northern Ireland Water admitted it had made a miscalculation in its projected revenue.

The shortfall was estimated to be �13m this year and �20m next year.

Eleanor Gill of the Consumer Council said: "We have already seen how basic miscalculations in the strategic business plan are going to cost domestic customers an extra �16m this year, rising to �30m in only two years' time.

"This is unacceptable at a time when household budgets are under growing strain to cope with other rising costs.

"Consumers can ill-afford to pick up the tab for these costly past mistakes. They will want to be assured that there are no more nasty surprises ahead. "Consumers need assurance that this water bill is not going to get out of control come 2010. "

Household bills

Northern Ireland Water said that through extra efficiencies and cutbacks, it had dealt with the imbalance in 2008/09.

"There is no impact on customers or the Department for Regional Development in this year," said a spokesman.

"As the department pointed out last week, NI Water did not under-estimate revenues from household bills.

"It over-estimated how much water businesses were using and as a result had to re-apportion costs to households."

It said that NI Water was doing everything possible to pinpoint and implement sustainable efficiency savings which will have an impact now and in future years.

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