HARD-PRESSED Yorkshire folk are facing a 7.5% rise in their water bills.

But not their salaries – employers would soon give us short shrift if we asked for a rise of a similar amount.

As we’re all left even poorer by the above-inflation increase in water charges, consumer groups have voiced their fears.

Too right.

We’re being told that the average bill is “just” 89p a day – a line peddled all too often these days.

The trouble is that these amounts all add up.

We perhaps ought to consider that we have got off lightly after the double-digit rises by gas and electricity companies, but the reality is that our water bills have more than doubled since privatisation.

There are those who would call for water companies to be taken back into public hands, putting people before profit.

That would clearly require a sea change in the will and attitude of politicians, who tend in the main to turn a blind eye to the continual dipping into our pockets by the utility companies.

At the very least, though, the Government should provide direct financial assistance to elderly people to pay their water bills – in the same way they get help for gas and electricity charges.