Tariffs and charges

Severn Trent Water has transferred its business customers to Water Plus. If you are a non-household customer, we will still supply your water and treat your used water, but your retailer will be your point of contact for meter reading, billing and collection.

Wholesale charges to retailers

We charge water and sewerage retailers for the services we provide to non-household customers.

If you are a business customer, your retailer will be able to tell you about your future charges.

Severn Trent customer charges

Read about our charges for prior years (up to 2016-17).

We still provide some miscellaneous services directly to non-household customers and these can be found in our Wholesale Scheme of Charges.


How we charge

Most business customers in our area of supply are metered, but a few will be on unmetered charges if it has not been practical to install a meter at their property.

The charges cover up to four elements:

Water supply

This covers the costs of supplying water to the property. For metered customers the charges include:

  • A standing charge based on the size of the meter. This covers the cost of maintaining and eventually replacing the meter.
  • A volumetric charge, based on the amount of water supplied.

Used water

This covers the cost of removing, treating and/or disposing of the used water from the property.

For metered customers this will be based on the volume of used water discharged; for charging purposes this is usually considered to be the same as the volume of clean water registered on the customer meter.

Surface water drainage

This covers the cost of draining rainwater from the property.

If no rainwater from the property drains to the public sewer then customers will not have to pay this charge.

For metered customers this charge is usually based on the area of their premises which drains to the public sewer.

Highway drainage charge

This covers the cost of draining rainwater from streets, roads and public common areas to our sewers.

The charge is paid if the premises is connected to the public sewer.

Trade effluent charges

If customers deposit more than just a domestic type of effluent into our sewers, we charge according to the strength of the effluent.

Unmetered charges

Where it has not been practical to install a meter at a non-household premises, charges will be based either on the rateable value of the property or on assessed volume.

See the Scheme of Charges for more information.

Fixed charges

We also apply a fixed charge for each service provided to a premises (water supply, used water, surface water drainage and trade effluent).

Fixed charges apply to both metered and unmetered sites.


Intermediate and large user tariffs

  • These tariffs are for non-household premises using high volumes of water. Retailers should select the wholesale intermediate or large user tariff if it will be beneficial to their customer.  In Severn Trent zones 1-8: The intermediate user tariff will usually benefit sites using between 10,000 and 49,999 cubic metres (m3) of water per annum.
  • The large user tariff will usually benefit sites using 50,000 cubic metres (m3) of water or more per annum.

In charging zones 9 and 10 (Chester and Wrexham), sites will benefit if they use somewhat higher volumes because the standard volumetric rate there is lower than the rest of Severn Trent. Retailers will need to assess whether the large user tariff will be cost-effective.

These annual tariffs apply from the first meter reading taken in April each year up until the final meter reading taken in April of the following year. Unlike our standard tariff, we operate peak and off-peak seasons, the latter of which offers a significantly discounted rate. There are additional fixed charges for customers on these tariffs.  

Standby tariff

This tariff applies to premises that have an alternative source of water supply in addition to a mains water supply from Severn Trent.  

The premises must also have an Environment Agency license to extract a minimum of 10,000 cubic metres (m3) per annum from their alternative water source and have the capability to use the alternative source as a backup to the mains supply. Premises that are eligible for this tariff will be charged using capacity charges, volume charges and premium charges.

At the beginning of each year Severn Trent must be notified of the volume that the customer believes will be required from the mains supply. A charge will be calculated based on the capacity required. This will remain fixed throughout the year regardless of whether customers use any more or less than their initial notification.

We will then charge based on the actual volume of water consumed. Where this exceeds the notified volume in either the peak or the off-peak seasons, the excess volume will be subject to premium charges.  

Publications

We publish indicative wholesale charges for the coming year in October and these are finalised in January each year. We also notify retailers in advance when we are planning to make significant changes to the way we charge (we publish this in July, 9 months before the changes will take effect).

Charging year Statement of significant changes   Indicative wholesale charges Final wholesale scheme Non-household customer scheme
2016-17 N/A
N/A Download (PDF) Download (PDF)
2017-18 Download (PDF) Download (PDF) Download (PDF) Download (PDF)
2018-19 Download (PDF) Download (PDF) Download (PDF)  
2019-20 Download (PDF) Download (PDF)
Download (PDF) N/A
2020-21 Download (PDF) Download (PDF) Download (PDF) N/A
2021-22 Download (PDF) Download (PDF) Download (PDF)  
2022-23 Download (PDF) Download (PDF)  Download (PDF)  
2023-24 Download (PDF) Download (PDF) Download (PDF)   
2024-25 Download (PDF) Download (PDF) Download (PDF)