THE number of household water disconnections in the North West fell by 19 per cent in the six months to September, according to OFWAT figures.

The water industry watchdog's figures for the period April 1 to September 30, this year, showed that the number of households disconnected dropped from 282 to 229, from a total of 2.8million homes served by North West Water.

North West Water's customer services director Bob Armstrong, said: "The figure maintains the general trend of lower disconnection levels which we began five years ago and which reflects our continuing efforts to improve our debt and disconnection procedures.

"We always treat domestic disconnection as a last resort after exhaustive attempts to contact customers who have not paid and to offer assistance with rescheduling payments.

"But we must also recognise that we have a duty to all our customers who pay their bills promptly to make every effort to ensure that they do not have to subsidise those who refuse to pay."

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