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The level of South West Water's charges are becoming increasingly burdensome for low and fixed income households. In an area with a generally low wage economy this means a lot of customers are going to find themselves adversely affected by the price increases over the next few years.

CCWater Western will continue to campaign for a more equitable charges structure nationally. Such a structure would help by sharing the burden currently placed on this area to finance South West Water's involvement in improving the environment thorough programmes such as 'Clean Sweep'.

In addition we will lobby forcefully for some targeted help for poorer customers from government, for example as part of housing benefit. The measures which Defra is trialling in the region fall far short of what is needed and what we expect the government to provide, and we will continue to lobby MPs of all parties to address this important issue.