Water supply for businesses is complex and covers a variety of different elements, depending on the activities on your site.
Most businesses have 4 charges:
- Water In (water supply),
- Water Out (used water/sewerage),
- Surface Drainage/Highway drainage
- Standing Charge.
However, there is a lot of room for errors in water billing, not only for inaccuracies in consumption or fixed costs, but in the very composition of your bill. Many charges are applied automatically and often without specific knowledge of sites, their drainage and usage patterns. The EAG can undertake a full audit of your site and water supplies to help identify potential savings and long-term overcharging.
Surface Water Drainage
Surface water drainage occurs when rainwater falls on a property and drains away.
Most rainwater falling on properties drains into public sewers owned by the ten water and sewerage companies in England and Wales. The companies are responsible for removing and processing this rainwater. The companies collect around £1 billion each year to cover the costs of this service.
If rainwater drains from your property into a public sewer, you will be charged for surface water drainage through your sewerage bill. If rainwater does not drain from your property into a public sewer, because you have a soakaway or similar, you may be entitled to a surface water drainage rebate.
Surface water drainage and highways drainage charges.
Surface water drainage and highways drainage charges.
Surface water drainage occurs when rainwater from your property drains into the sewer. The surface water drainage charge covers the costs of taking away and treating surface water that runs from properties into a sewerage company’s sewers. This includes water that flows through gutters or which runs into the road and ends up in a company owned sewer.
There is a charge for this service, and you will pay for surface water drainage in your bill in one of three ways:
- a fee in the standing charge
- a charge based on the rateable value of your property
- through a charge related to the type of property you live in
If you can prove that the surface rainwater from your property does not drain into the public sewer, you may be entitled to an exemption from future surface water charges. You may also be able to claim a refund for some money you have previously paid for surface water drainage. If you qualify for an exemption you will receive it through a lower charge. The level of rebate can be found in your sewerage company’s charging scheme.
Surface water drainage rebates
Applying for a surface water drainage rebate
If no surface water from your property enters a public sewer then you may qualify for a reduction in your sewerage charge (‘surface water drainage rebate’).
Surface Water and Highways Drainage charges are often assessed based upon historical rateable values or site area. These assessments are often incorrect.
Companies do not know the surface water drainage arrangements of all the individual properties in its area. This means that you usually need to make an application for a rebate.
You should apply to your water company providing evidence that none of your surface water enters the public sewer. Your company should explain the kind of evidence that it would need to see. They will check whether you qualify and if you do:
- you will not be charged for surface water drainage on future bills
- some of the amount you paid previously may be refunded
Sometimes your company does know, or might reasonably be expected to have known, that your property was not connected to its sewerage system for surface water drainage. In this case we would expect it to apply the rebate (and refund any money overpaid) from the date at which it knew (or might reasonably be expected to have known) the property was not connected.
You do not need to use a third party to apply for a rebate, you can apply directly to your company.
If you have problems with a surface water drainage rebate application, and you are unable to resolve them with your company, you should contact the Consumer Council for Water.
Or get in touch with the EAG for help.
Highway Drainage
Water that drains from roads and footpaths flows into public drainage systems. This is known as highway drainage. Water companies recover the costs of providing highway drainage from their customers. Highway drainage benefits everyone that uses the road system, so there is a case for recovering the costs directly from roads authorities or users. However, legislation prevents this.
In a report ‘Water charging in England and Wales’ published in 1998 the government indicated that it had no plans to change legislation as there would be little benefit in the changes and it would otherwise have to be collected through charges such as council tax.
Take action to reduce charges
Site area based charging
If any of your surface water drains into the public sewer system, you can only reduce your bill if you are charged by site area. You may be able to reduce your bill by checking that your water company has estimated your site area correctly, or by reducing the amount of surface water on your site that drains into the public sewers.
Checking that your water company’s estimate of the site area is correct
Contact your water company – you will find details of how to do this on your bill. Companies who charge surface water drainage by site area will have made an estimate of the site area, but this estimate may be incorrect.
If you believe there has been a miscalculation, you should contact your water company for a review. You may be in the wrong charging band, meaning your charges may be too high, or possibly, too low.
Checking that your water company’s estimate of chargeable site area is correct
Your water company may also have not taken account of site area where natural drainage occurs. You should only be charged for surface water drainage for areas which, directly or indirectly, drain into public sewers.
Therefore, areas that drain naturally, such as sports fields or gardens, or areas with soakaways and permeable surfaces, should not be included in the chargeable site area. Again, if you believe that such areas have not been taken into consideration, you should contact your water company for a review. This could result in significant savings. Alternatively, we at the EAG can undertake this process for you.
You can also take action to reduce your charges by reducing the amount of surface water on your site that drains into the public sewers. Some of the ways of doing this include:
Soakaways
Installing a soakaway.
A soakaway is a man-made hole in the ground. It collects water and allows it to disperse and drain away naturally. It costs in the region of £650 to put in a small (1m3) soakaway.
Changing impermeable areas to permeable ones. Natural drainage can be promoted by converting areas which do not allow water to soak through, such as an asphalt car park, to ones which do. You can also consider installing simpler solutions on your site like ponds or ditches or using materials that drain naturally like gravel.
For information about surface water drainage charges, please get in touch with your water company. If you have any further queries, please contact the Consumer Council for Water.
Return to Sewer (RTS)
Check if you are entitled to an additional non-return to sewer allowance.
Most sewerage wholesalers apply a default Return to Sewer (RTS) figure of between 90- 95% to their metered sewerage volume charges. This has the effect of automatically applying an allowance of between 5 to 10% in recognition that not all water used by measured customers’ returns to sewer.
An RTS allowance may be applied in the following ways:
- against the volume of sewage returned to sewer
- included in the wholesaler's tariff
Types of RTS Allowance
There are a number of reasons why water does not return to the sewer. These include:
- Evaporation (e.g. boiler, cooling towers, heated swimming pools, launderette);
- Irrigation (e.g. garden centre/golf club/football club);
- Removed off site (e.g. swimming pool bathers’ costumes & towels; tropical fish shop; disposal off-site due to interceptor or tank cleaning);
- Added to a product (e.g. cement works, bakery, food & drink manufacture, Livestock farms, steam processes).
If you regularly use large amounts of water in manufacturing or other processes and can show it doesn’t return to the sewer, let us know and we can investigate if you are entitled to a rebate.
Check for Leaks
Water leaks can be a serious problem for a business, its premises and its costs. If a water leak exists on your side of the meter it is your liability to locate and repair the leak. Water leaks, if undetected, will form part of your measured water and wastewater charges, will cause a noticeable reduction in water pressure, can be a major factor in causing material damage and in certain cases can cause a loss of production. You will also have been charged for measured waste water, that most likely, has not returned to sewers. Even a moderate leak of 1 litre of water per minute would add around £1,000 to your annual measured water costs.
Water leaks generally exist underground and can go undetected for years, purely because they cannot be seen. People only realise that there may be a problem with leaks when they see water breaking the surface however, this may not actually be the point at which a pipe is leaking water.
If you repair the leak promptly, you may be due a one-off burst allowance and a non-return to sewer (NTS) rebate for the cost of the water lost through leakage, or they may help you to detect and repair leaks where they are accessible. You should also check for leaks inside your premises.
You can do this by observing your water meters to see if it continues to record when no water is being used, there may be a leak in the supply pipe or within your premises.
Check for plumbing faults such as continuously flushing urinals or dripping taps.
Check that your water meter is the right size for your needs.
Fixed charges for both incoming and outgoing water services are based on the size of the supply meter. If your usage has changed, you can ask the company to downsize the meter, usually at your cost.
The return on investment may take time, but eventually, be worthwhile.
Invoice Validation
Understanding a customer’s water and sewerage needs and costs fully is the basis on which to undertake a water bill validation. This required a 15 minute verbal audit of onsite processes and equipment, along with copies of a minimum 12 months of water bills.
We have found that when we provide Billing Validation for customers and receive and process all their water bills direct from suppliers, this has assisted us to deliver greater savings for them. A Letter of Authority to engage with your water and wastewater suppliers will enable us to obtain the relevant documents.
Unlike energy bills, we find that very little validation has ever taken place with water bills, as there is limited understanding of how the sector works.
A key part of our water audit service is to analyse water bills that you receive but also to understand historic charges that have been applied. The data that we collect during the water audit is used to validate the charges that have been raised. The spectrum of errors is widespread and cover every aspect of charges and in some cases, we can find several errors on a single site. Experience shows that the need for continuous monitoring of water bills is necessary, as complicated charging schemes cause continually cause errors to be made.
ASK THE EAG ABOUT WATER BILL VALIDATION
Water Smart Meters
Smart meters provide continual data on water consumption and are important in helping reduce costs and identify problems, such as water leaks.
To find out more about how to manage your energy and water consumption, check here.