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Can customers appeal against their surface water drainage banding?

Surface water drainage charges based on site area are only payable for areas which drain, directly or indirectly, into public sewers.

Chargeable areas will be adjusted to take account of large grassy or gravelled areas, such as church yards, burial grounds and car parks that do not drain into a public sewer. Where a water company has not taken account of such features the customer may notify the company, which should then make the adjustment.

If agreement cannot be reached on the area to be drained customers should contact the Consumer Council for Water (CCWater) Committee.

CCWater represents customers' interests. It focuses on the level of customers' bills, the services provided to customers and value for money. It also investigates complaints from customers about their water company.

What other action can be taken?

It may also be possible to divert site area flows away from the public sewer to limit the chargeable area of premises, for example by installing soakaways or replacing surfaces which do not allow water to soak through, such as asphalt with surfaces which do, such as gravel or other specialist products.

Can churches and charities become exempt in the future?

Some customers for example churches believe that they and other members of the voluntary/charitable sector should be exempt from charging and their bills should be subsidised by other customers.

Any decision to explicitly exclude a group of customers from water or sewerage charges for social policy reasons would be a matter for the Government rather than Ofwat. As the independent economic regulator, we apply fair and transparent rules to all customers.

What do I do if I have a complaint?

If you have a dispute with the way your water company has assessed your site area, in the first instance you should raise it direct with the company.

If you have contacted the company and you are still not happy, you can ask your local Consumer Council for Water (CCWater) Committee to investigate.

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