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RD 04/02
TO ALL REGULATORY DIRECTORS OF ALL
WATER AND SEWERAGE AND WATER
ONLY COMPANIES
8 March 2002
Dear Regulatory Director
NON-HOUSEHOLD TARIFF PROPOSALS FOR 2003-04
The purpose of this letter is to recommend a timetable for companies to submit proposals for new or significantly revised non-household tariffs.
Companies should give their business customers early notice of tariff changes that are likely to have a significant impact on bills. This is particularly important where early notification would enable customers to plan their future demands.
In the past, companies have shared new proposals with Ofwat at tariffs meetings in the summer, usually only in broad outline. We would not normally see detailed proposals until companies submitted their draft Charges Schemes in the autumn. This leaves companies with the difficult choice of either: i. waiting for Ofwat's provisional approval, and notifying customers at a late stage; or
ii. notifying customers early, but with the risk that the company may have to modify or withdraw its proposals following Ofwat's response.
We wish to avoid this situation in the future. We therefore recommend that companies submit any significant new proposals to Ofwat, at least in outline, by the end of May. We will assess those proposals prior to discussion at tariffs meetings in July. Companies could then work up detailed proposals and submit them to Ofwat by the end of August. This should enable us to give provisional approval in September so that companies can give sufficient notice to their customers.
We will continue to consider significant proposals submitted outside of this recommended timetable. But we would encourage companies to notify us of such proposals as early as possible in order to avoid the difficulties described above. We do not need to see minor changes to tariffs before companies submit draft Charges Schemes.
Please contact me if you would like to discuss this issue.
Yours sincerely
Paul Hope
Head of Tariffs | 
Letters to Regulatory Directors
