Household Charges
Since 1996, household water and sewerage charges have been billed and collected by individual local authorities for Scottish Water, together with Council Tax. This joint billing and collection system enables water and sewerage bills for domestic properties to be linked to the Council Tax banding system and means that customers occupying lower banded properties pay a correspondingly lower charge. The vast majority of households in Scotland are billed for their water and sewerage services in this manner. Those remaining households pay for their water services on a measured or metered basis.
A benefit of the joint system is that many existing Council Tax discounts also apply to water charges - with the exceptions of second home discounts and Council Tax benefit. On April 1 2006, Ministers introduced a water services reduction of up to 25% for households with two or more adults and which are in receipt of Council Tax benefit and no other discounts. The purpose of the reduction was to directly assist vulnerable households, in receipt of Council Tax benefit, that had previously not been eligible for any, or only a very limited, reduction in their water services charges.
While household charges cover the cost of surface drainage and roads drainage the amounts are not shown separately on the Council Tax bill.