Ofwat has today opened a consultation on a draft determination of a dispute referred under section 30A of the Water Industry Act 1991 (‘the Act’).
The dispute is between Utility Law Solutions (on behalf of others) and Anglian Water Services Limited and is about the inclusion of costs associated with the Wing Main in requisition charges for water supply infrastructure from Anglian Water Services Limited.
This is the first instance in which we have applied our interpretation of the legal framework in the Act in order to determine the extent to which developers should contribute towards strategic infrastructure.
We would, therefore, like to invite interested stakeholders to provide their views on how we have applied both our legal and cost assessment framework in this draft determination.
The consultation, which runs for four weeks, seeks views from interested parties on the questions set out in the draft determination.
Notes to Editors:
- Ofwat (The Water Services Regulation Authority) is the economic regulator of the water and sewerage sectors in England and Wales. It exercises its powers in a way that it judges will protect the interests of consumers, promote value and safeguard future water and sewerage services by allowing efficient companies to carry out their functions properly, and finance them.
- This dispute was referred to Ofwat on 20 October 2009 by Utility Law Solutions on behalf of two separate developers. ULS question the legal basis for the contribution that Anglian Water Services Limited has required from developers in relation to costs associated with the Wing Strategic Main.
- Ofwat considers that Anglian Water Services Limited does have a legal basis to charge developers for a contribution towards the Wing Strategic Main. However, Ofwat does not consider that the level of developer contribution collected by Anglian Water Services Limited, in accordance with the 2004 Price Review is now appropriate. Instead, Ofwat proposes that the aggregate level of developers’ contributions should be equal to the incremental costs of the additional capacity required for new developments.
- The consultation paper will be available on the Ofwat website: www.ofwat.gov.uk
- Responses should be addressed to: Mala Shetty ([email protected])
- Media enquiries to Ofwat Press Office:
Benedict Fisher 0121 644 mailto:7642%20/%[email protected]
Harbinder Babra on 0121 644 mailto:7616%20/%[email protected]