Fortunately, the standard of tap water in the UK is generally excellent.

Yup, I've not tasted "bad" tapwater in the UK. We live on chalk here in Hampshire and while the water is pretty hard it tastes ok. It comes from a large borehole about three miles away and the village has a large storage reservoir on a nearby hillside so the pressure is excellent.

What is very noticeable is when visiting soft water areas the soap and shampoo works twice as well!

Gareth