Non-household Charges
There are approximately 130,000 non-domestic customers in Scotland. Of these around 80,000 pay for their water services on a metered basis and around 50,000 are un-metered. However, there is a general meter installation programme currently underway to meter all non-domestic customers, where practicable to do so, by April 2009.
With the recent introduction of retail competition (that is, competition in the provision of customer facing activities such as billing, charge collection, meter reading and complaints handling etc.) on April 1 2008, non-household customers can now choose their water billing agent including Scottish Water's new retail arm, Business Stream. Following this change, Scottish Water is still entirely responsible for the provision of water and waste water services to all customers and for maintaining the public system.
All new retail providers must be licensed by the Water Industry Commission for Scotland. Information about the retail licensing regime, as administered by the Commission, can be found on its website at: http://www.watercommissioner.co.uk/.
Retail competition means that the water charge setting framework, including Scottish Ministers' high level charging principles, that apply to household charges, now only apply to the wholesale charge that Scottish Water levies on licensed retailers for non-household customers. Specific charges for non-household customers, and the manner in which these apply, are matters for individual retailers.