Competition

New competition arrangements allowing customers who use over 50 megalitres (10.9 million gallons) per year to seek alternative suppliers were introduced in the water industry on 1 December 2005. The Government announced on 31 October 2011 a reduction in threshold to five megalitres. This came into force on 15 December 2011.

The Water Supply Licensing (WSL) arrangement allows licensed entrants in the industry to use South West Water's public supply system to supply water to an eligible customer's premises. This can either be through wholesale supply of water treated and supplied by South West Water or through combined supply of water introduced by the licensee into the supply system.

Other types of network access involving the shared use of essential facilities where this is not covered by the Water Supply Licensing arrangements has a separate existing South West Water network access code. The access code contains details of the application process and indicative prices.

South West Water is required to publish this information to inform licensees and customers about the arrangements. The  WSL network access code (969kb) is available to download. Contact us for a copy of the WSL access code application in a Word file.