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Paying for water: water pricing and equity in England and Wales
Author(s) -
Bakker Karen
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
transactions of the institute of british geographers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.196
H-Index - 107
eISSN - 1475-5661
pISSN - 0020-2754
DOI - 10.1111/1475-5661.00012
Subject(s) - equity (law) , water supply , social equality , closing (real estate) , commodity , economics , public economics , business , equity theory , intergenerational equity , finance , market economy , microeconomics , political science , sustainability , ecology , environmental engineering , law , biology , engineering , economic justice
Over the past three decades, the business of water supply in England and Wales has been gradually transforming from the supply of a service to citizens, to the sale of a commodity to customers. The paper provides a genealogy of concepts of efficiency and equity in water regulation over the past thirty years, prior to evaluating the implications for water consumers of one aspect of this process – the shift away from policies prioritizing inter‐ and intra‐regional equalization (implying a principle of social equity) towards policies prioritizing economic efficiency (implying a principle of economic equity) in water charging. In closing, alternatives to the current arrangements for domestic consumers are proposed.