In April 2008 we introduced a new way of calculating our charges for surface water and highway drainage services for our existing measured non-household customers. This is the part of the water bill that covers the drainage and removal of rain water from customers’ premises and public highways.
The new way of calculating surface water and highway drainage services is called ‘site area charging’ and is based upon the size of the premises (including buildings, car parks and other areas that need to drain to the public sewer). It does not include grassed areas. Prior to April 2008 the charge for this service was calculated using rateable values or standing charges based the size of the meter where no rateable value was available.
This change only affects our non-household measured customers. Site area charging does not affect unmeasured non-household customers or household customers.
Site area charging is a much fairer way of calculating charges for surface water and highway drainage services as it is no longer influenced by the location of the business.
What we are doing
It has become clear since the introduction of site area charging that certain groups of customers have been particularly affected by the transition to site area charging – specifically places of worship, Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASC) and Guide and Scout Association buildings. These customers have either very low rateable values or had even been zero rated. This meant that prior to April 2008 these customer groups had very low surface water and highway drainage charges.
We have listened to the issues being faced by these customer groups and have decided to make an adjustment to their 2009/10 charges. For the majority of these customer groups, this will result in their charges being based on either rateable value or standing charge.
Next Steps
The vast majority of places of worship and Scout and Guide groups have already been identified on our billing system and will receive an amended charge for 2009/2010.
We have tried to identify customers who could qualify as a CASC. They will receive a letter and a form for them to confirm their status as a CASC. Once we have received the completed form we will amend their charges accordingly.
Our United Futures partnership has run a pilot seminar designed to inform customers about the charge and how they may be able to reduce it. This has proved successful and will continue this year.