HOUSEHOLDERS in the York area will continue paying lower water charges than other Yorkshire Water customers elsewhere in the region, York Central MP Hugh Bayley has revealed.

The MP says when Yorkshire Water bought York Waterworks in 1999, a condition of the merger was that former Waterworks customers would continue paying 15 per cent less for their bills than the other Yorkshire Water customers.

He said he had written to Regina Finn, the chief executive of OFWAT, to seek confirmation they would continue paying these lower charges and had now received such an assurance.

He said the discount customers had enjoyed for 12 years was worth more than £50 a year for a typical household in York.