Aquamain was contracted by housing developer Parsimmon to lay the water and sewerage mains for 136 new houses at a development in Somerset and the dispute with the water company surrounds the charges for adopting the pipes.
Wessex Water has charged the SLO an infrastructure charge of £91,936 for linking the new properties up to the water and wastewater networks.
Alongside this, Wessex Water has also charged Aquamain with network reinforcement costs – needed to ensure its network can supply the new development – of £81,397.36.
Aquamain took this dispute to the regulator and challenged Wessex Water’s ability to charge for both the infrastructure charge and the network reinforcement costs.
In the SLO’s view, both sets of charges were intended to cover Wessex Water’s costs for reinforcing the network as a result of the new development and that by invoicing it for both, the water company was recovering “double their costs”.
The regulator has ruled that the charging structure set out by Wessex Water is correct and that the company is “legally entitled” to charge the infrastructure charge and for network reinforcement.
It stated that the recovery of infrastructure charges does not affect the charges recovered by Wessex Water for the network reinforcement works.
With the network reinforcement costs deducted, Wessex Water has paid Aquamain a total of £110,992.72 to adopt and take over the newly constructed water and sewerage network. This does not take into account the infrastructure charge.