The action follows calls from MPs at the end of last week for a framework to provide a “degree of certainty” of how applications to extend properties over or within 3 meters of a sewer are dealt with.
Currently, there is no national standard and each regional water companies follows its own practices and processes.
Conservative environment minister George Eustice urged the water sector to work with the Glass and Glazing Federation (GGF), which has drafted an agreement, adding that establishing a code of practice would “prevent water companies from charging excessively for these agreements”.
He added water minister Dan Rogerson will be writing to Water UK to “encourage that development” and get some “momentum behind the idea”.
Trade association Water UK said that the water companies “will be more than willing to respond” to these concerns, and that work discussing a code of practice “will happen very promptly”.
Water UK’s legal and policy advisor David Strang told Utility Week: “What we are keen to do is get something that covers all our assets and to make sure a there is a sensible compromise between what a homeowner wants to do and our need to access a sewer if it is built over.”
However, he added that due to the “technical” nature of build-over arrangements, creating a national code of practice will not be a quick process.