Consultation on water and sewerage charges

Views sought on revenue-raising options including the removal of the domestic allowance for non-domestic customers.

The Department for Infrastructure has launched a consultation on options for introducing water and sewerage charges.

The consultation provides an overview of potential water and sewerage charging revenue-raising options that could be introduced in Northern Ireland, with a focus on creating sustainable public finances.

It sets out and seeks views on the main pathways through which water and sewerage charging could be introduced, how a relief scheme to protect vulnerable people might be developed, and how charging might be billed and collected.

It also asks about three other revenue-raising options:

• charging customers for domestic septic tank desludging
• recovering the cost of roads drainage from all customers
• the removal of the domestic allowance for non-domestic customers

All non-domestic customers in Northern Ireland are charged for water and those who discharge to the public sewer are also subject to sewerage charges, and trade effluent charges where applicable. In cases where a property is used for both non-domestic and domestic purposes, the use of water and sewerage is considered as non-domestic use.

A domestic allowance is a free volume of water and/or sewage which is subtracted from the volume as recorded by the meter, before calculating the volumetric charge. This revenue raising option would involve the removal of the allowance currently received by non-domestic customers for domestic usage, meaning that such customers would be required to pay more. 

Find out more about the consultation and how to respond.

First published 11 December 2023