Ofwat is consulting on a proposal to grant Independent Water Networks (IWN) a variation to its appointment to enable it to provide water to a site called Oakham Phase One in Leicestershire.
The proposal would allow IWN to supply water to a development of 657 household properties.
New appointments and variations include one company replacing another as the appointee for a specific geographic area. IWN will serve its customers by taking a bulk supply of water from Severn Trent Water.
IWN proposes to offer customers a 5% discount on Severn Trent Water’s volumetric water charge, as it has done in some of its previous applications. IWN will be required to offer customers at least the equivalent levels of service to Severn Trent Water.
IWN was granted its appointment as a water and sewerage company in October 2007 for a housing development called Long Croft Road in Corby, in Anglian Water’s area. It has since been granted further variations to this appointment at Priors Hall in Corby, Great Billing Way in Northampton, Brooklands in Milton Keynes, The Bridge in Dartford, Berryfields in Aylesbury and King’s Cross in London.
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Notes to Editors:
- Ofwat (The Water Services Regulation Authority) is the economic regulator of water and sewerage companies 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.
- New appointments and variations are the route by which one company replaces another as the appointed water and/or sewerage company for a specified area. The replacement water and sewerage company will have all of the same duties and responsibilities as the previous statutory water and sewerage company for the specified area.
- There are three qualifying criteria for seeking a new appointment or variation:
- an area does not contain any premises that receive services from an appointed water or sewerage company (it is ‘unserved’);
- a customer uses (or is likely to use) at least 50 million litres of water a year (in England) or 250 million litres of water a year (in Wales) at each of its premises and wants to change its supplier (a ‘large user’); or
- the existing appointed company agrees to transfer part of its area to a different company (a transfer by ‘consent’).
- Media enquiries to the Ofwat Press Office: 0121 644 7642 / 7821 / 7616 / [email protected]