Commercial water use at residential address

A question about : Commercial water use at residential address

Wondered if any Northumbrian Water rep could help me?

I'm self-employed and run a small cleaning company with my OH.
We use about 3000 litres of water a week. We take the water from our home address.
Our current water company asks us to estimate what % of our usage is domestic and what is for our business and bills us accordingly.

We're hoping to move shortly and will come under Northumbrian Water. I've had some conflicting adbice from them today on the phone. One adviser said that I cannot use any water at all from my home if it will be used for our business. I've been told that I must hire a stand pipe. This is just not feasible for us for various reasons.
Does anyone know if this is correct? Why can't they just do what our old company did?

TIA

Best answers:

• Contact the Consumer Council for Water and seek their advice.
  https://www.ccwater.org.uk/
• In my area if you operate a business from home you are asked to go on a water meter. That way you are paying for what you use. All businesses must be on a meter so they treat a business from home in the same way - actually sounds fair to me.