We are in London, a hard water area. I used an Ideal Standard chrome bath mixer tap when I did the bathroom in 1998. It's still functioning perfectly and the plating is as good as new. I bought a new cartridge for it about ten years ago but found that the problem was some polystyrene bits from the cold tank in the loft that had bunged the tap up. The replacement cartridge has never been installed.
BTW, some people give Ideal Standard bad reviews. It was a long time ago and manufacturing quality changes over time, but we have been very happy. The best bit feature of our particular tap is that you can operate the tap with the heel of your foot while still lying in the bath!