This is called a dead leg, and if you have a combi boiler there is nothing really you can do about it.
Basically when you open the hot tap the boiler fires but the hot water has to push the water that is after the boiler through first. Unfortunately the only way to remedy this with a combi boiler is to move the combi closer to the draw offs but obviously this would be costly and I wouldnt recommend it.
As far as the water meter goes they are measured in cubic meters which is 1000 litres ( or approx 220 gallons) and each unit should cost less than �3.00.