Ofwat is consulting on a proposal to grant SSE Water a variation to its appointment to enable it to provide water and sewerage services to a site called Embassy Gardens, in London.
The proposal would allow SSE Water to supply water and sewerage services to a development of 639 household properties.
New appointments and variations include one company replacing another as the statutory supplier for a specific geographic area. SSE Water will serve its customers by taking a bulk supply of water and securing a discharge agreement from Thames Water.
SSE Water proposes to charge customers at Embassy Gardens based on the existing Thames Water metered water and sewerage household tariffs. Ofwat is satisfied that SSE Water will offer customers on the site at least equivalent levels of service to Thames Water.
SSE Water was granted its appointment as a water and sewerage company in October 2007 for a housing development called Old Sarum, near Salisbury, in Wessex Water’s area. It has since been granted a further 19 variations to its appointment at a variety of sites in different companies’ areas throughout England and Wales.
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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]