Draft of NI water charges scheme to be released

The Department for Regional Development has initiated an eight week consultation exercise on the initial water charges scheme for 2007/08.

This scheme will apply to Northern Ireland Water Limited – the government owned company which will be set up on April 1 2007.

The draft charges scheme brings together, for the first time, the full details of the comprehensive water and sewerage charging regime that the new company will operate under – details that have been consulted upon or announced over the past three years.

This includes details on the Affordability Tariff, the domestic metering policy and information on payment methods. It also provides details of the existing charging policies.

The consultation is primarily focussed on the form and content of the draft charges scheme.

Although every water or sewerage utility company in the UK produces a charges scheme, there has never been such a document in Northern Ireland.

The Department is, therefore, keen to take views on the shape and structure of the document to ensure that it covers the areas that it is required to by the Order and provides the information that customers need in a readily accessible format.

The final charges scheme will provide details of the levels of the charges and tariffs – these will be available once the Strategic Business Plan is agreed. The figures contained in the consultation draft charges scheme are the latest estimates, which provide a reasonable indication of the likely level of the final tariffs for the period of 2007/08.

The document is available on the website www.waterreformni.gov.uk or by contacting the Water Reform Unit, 6th Floor, Lancashire House, 5 Linenhall Street, Belfast, BT2 8AA. Telephone 02890 542985.

(EF)