Private sewers in England and Wales
On 25 July 2007, the Government published a consultation on implementing the transfer of private sewers and lateral drains connected to the public sewerage system to water and sewerage companies (WaSCs).
The consultation is the latest stage in the Government’s review of private sewers and drains in England and Wales.
The consultation sets out the options for implementing the transfer and asks whether private sewers and lateral drains serving commercial properties should be included in transfer. The consultation also examines how to prevent the proliferation of new private sewers in the future, in order to prevent the re-occurrence of existing problems.
Water is a devolved issue and the consultation is being held jointly with the Welsh Assembly Government for those customers served by a WaSC in Wales.
The review to date has comprised of two stages:
On 22 February 2007 the Government announced that existing private sewers and lateral drains in England, connected to the public sewer system, would be transferred into the ownership of the nine statutory WaSCs and undertook to consult on ways to do so.
The announcement followed a public consultation which explored the problems surrounding existing private sewers in England and Wales and sought views on a number of possible solutions, including the adoption of private sewers by sewerage undertakers. The Government published a response to the consultation in October 2004 which noted the strength of support for transfer and undertook to examine the case for it in more depth.
Further information is available on our Help page about downloading or reading Adobe Acrobat PDF documents.
Page last modified: 25 July 2007
Page published: 15 October 2004