In December last year, the Scottish Water Technical Panel set out its proposals to streamline charging for drainage services. The aim of these changes is to make drainage charges clearer and to provide greater incentives to customers to implement solutions that reduce the level of drainage being returned to the Scottish Water network.
This change will allow customers to remove drainage charges completely for premises that do not drain into the Scottish Water Network; prior to April 2021 only Property Drainage could be removed (roughly 60% of Drainage charges).
This single charge will continue to be referred to as ‘Property Drainage’ for the time being. This is a simplification that has been desired for some time, and the changes mark the first steps towards this goal.
- Customers will be able to make substantial savings on drainage charges by reducing the amount of water returning to the Scottish Water network.
- This will apply to premises that have property drainage services in place.
- Roads Drainage may still appear on invoices and estimates until this service is removed, however from 01 April 2021 this will be charged at a rate of zero.
- Scottish Water state, “The review identifies that the current rainwater drainage charges are seen by many customers as being too complicated, while some customers dislike the standalone roads drainage charge because they cannot do anything to influence the size of their charge. In light of the time required to implement different charging arrangements, the report recognises that some of these issues could be addressed in the shorter term”
