Consultation on charging rules for new connections and new developments for English companies from April 2020

About Consultation

This consultation relates to water companies whose areas are wholly or mainly in England.

The Water Industry Act 1991 (the Act) as amended by the Water Act 2014 allows us to set rules about the charges of water companies for new connections and developer services.

Within this legislative framework, this document is a statutory consultation on changes from April 2020 to the:

• Charging Rules for New Connection Services (English Undertakers) (New Connection Rules); and
• Charges Scheme Rules

These changes, for consultation, are to implement our November 2017 decision to change the way that income offsets are applied, to support a vibrant and competitive market for developer services, as well as to clarify our rules in relation to the balance of charges between developers and existing customers.

In addition we are consulting on a new information requirement to support the stability and predictability of bills for new connection services.

How to respond

We welcome responses to this consultation by 28 May 2019.

We prefer you to send your response by email to [email protected]. You can also submit your response by web form below or by post to:
Charging
Ofwat
Centre City Tower
7 Hill Street
Birmingham
B5 4UA

We may publish responses to this consultation on our website at www.ofwat.gov.uk, unless you indicate that you would like your response to remain unpublished. Information provided in response to this consultation, including personal information, may be published or disclosed in accordance with access to information legislation – primarily the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoIA), the General Data Protection Regulation 2016, the Data Protection Act 2018, and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. For further information on how we process personal data please see our Privacy Policy.

If you would like the information that you provide to be treated as confidential, please be aware that, under the FoIA, there is a statutory ‘Code of Practice’ which deals, among other things, with obligations of confidence. In view of this, it would be helpful if you could explain to us why you regard the information you have provided as confidential. If we receive a request for disclosure of the information, we will take full account of your explanation, but we cannot give an assurance that we can maintain confidentiality in all circumstances. An automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated by your IT system will not, of itself, be regarded as binding on Ofwat.