On average, our charges for domestic customers for the water services we provide will increase by five per cent from 1 April 2009. However, the change in your own bill will depend on the services you receive (water and/or sewerage), the RV of your property, your water consumption if you have a water meter and your surface area charge if you are a commercial customer. Northumbrian Water Ltd (NWL) has its own range of tariffs for the services it provides.
For more information on water and sewerage charges please see our Charges Summary or contact us.
Charges for customers who have a water meter
Your charges for water services is made up of:
For domestic customers:
- A charge of 96.48p per cubic metre based upon volume of water used and
- A standing charge of £27 a year, payable whether the services are used or not.
For commercial customers:
- A charge of 61.48p per cubic mere based upon volume of water used and
- A standing charge of £45 a year, payable whether the services are used or not.
Your charges for sewerage services are made up of:
- A foul (used) water element. This is for disposal of water for toilets, baths, sinks and kitchen appliances, such as washing machines and dishwashers in your property.
- A surface water and highway drainage charge. This is for disposal of rain or melted snow that drains from roofs or other hard surfaces, such as driveways or other hardstandings, on your property. It also includes a contribution towards the drainage of roads and pavements in your area.
For wastewater
All customers:
A charge of 87.52p per cubic metre based upon the meter reading for water.
For surface water and highway drainage charge.
Both of these charges are combined within a fixed charge and are calculated as follows:
Domestic customers:
A fixed charge of £68.40.
Commercial customers:
From April 2008, Northumbrian Water Ltd. (NWL) moved away from charging commercial customers based upon the rateable value of the property. All customers are billed a fixed charge depending upon the allocated surface area charging band of the property.
The charges for each band are summarised in our Surface Water Drainage Bands information sheet.
The surface area that has been allocated to your site will be shown on your bill as SWD Band.
Surface area charges apply to premises with a connection to the public sewer for either wastewater, surface water and highway drainage or foul water and highway drainage only.
Are you liable for surface water charges?
In most cases, surface water drains into public sewers, but in some circumstances, ground conditions have enabled the use of soakaways or drainage into a local watercourse as an alternative.
If you are a domestic customer on either unmetered or metered charges and you can demonstrate that none of the surface water from your property drains into the public sewerage system, either directly or indirectly, then you could reduce the sewerage standing charge on your bill by £37.80 in 2009/10.
If you are a commercial customer, your charge for surface water drainage is based upon the area charge method (SWD Band). You may also be eligible to claim a reduction in chargeable area in relation to any area of the site that does not drain to the public sewer.
If you believe that you are eligible to apply for an allowance on your surface water drainage charge or as a commercial customer, you would like to appeal against the surface water charging band that has been allocated to your property, please contact us for more information and an application form.
Why charges change
Water supply and sewerage service charges have increased to pay for the massive investment programme needed to meet the rigorous standards set by UK and European legislation. We have made significant progress, but much still remains to be done. To finance this investment we have needed to increase charges. If you would like further information on our investment programme or to learn more about how we put your money to work, please contact us.
The formula for setting our charges is laid down in the licence under which we operate. The formula is RPI plus or minus K; RPI is the rate of inflation or Retail Price Index in the November prior to the start of the charging year. K is an adjustment factor, which is set individually for each water company by the Director General of Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat).
For further information please see our Charges Summary or contact us.