THE Welsh Government is consulting on placing a legal duty on landlords to give water firms the names of their tenants.

Alun Davies, minister for natural resources and Blaenau Gwent AM, hopes that the measure will help to tackle bad debt and help to reduce water bills.

According to the Welsh Government bad debt, which is built up by unpaid water bills, is currently costing the average household in Wales an additional £20 a year.

Mr Davies said: "At the moment bad water debt is resulting in an additional £20 being added to the water bills of the average householder in Wales each year and I am keen to take action to reduce this.

"Bad debt is partly built up when water companies are unable to identify who occupies a property. This can be a particular problem with tenanted properties and can make it very difficult for water companies to collect outstanding charges.

"The regulations we are currently consulting on would mean that landlords would have a legal duty to provide the water company with their own details as well as the name, date of birth and occupancy dates of their tenants.

"This should make it much easier for outstanding charges to be collected and should ultimately reduce water bills for householders in Wales."