Burst pipe? That will be your problem, says Scottish Water

SCOTTISH Water has been accused of overcharging after it emerged that its customers are the only ones in Britain who have to pay for repairs to pipes supplying their homes.

Every water company in England and Wales has agreed to repair domestic supply pipes for free, but Scottish Water refused to sign up to that.

Now it has come under fire, not only for passing on charges to consumers which it should be covering itself, but also for making more money from expensive insurance packages - sent out in case customers have future problems with their supply pipes.

Scottish Water has a policy which gives it responsibility for all water pipes up to the "garden gate" of every house in Scotland. At that point, the pipes become the responsibility of the householder. This is not the approach taken in the rest of Britain where all 29 water companies signed an agreement with the government in 1997, in which they accepted responsibility for all domestic supply pipes, before and after the garden gate.

One Edinburgh customer who got a letter asking him to take out insurance said he was alarmed that Scottish Water was suggesting he pay 16 a year for repairs which the utility itself should cover. The man, who did not want to be named, also said it was wrong to take in money for insurance for a burst or damaged supply pipe when this rarely happened to anybody in Scotland.

Jim Mather, of the SNP, said: "This is another manifestation of overcharging by Scottish Water, a further imposition on already hard-pressed water charge payers, and it also makes Scotland an even less competitive place to do business."

Alex Johnstone, for the Tories, said: "I am horrified that Scottish Water is looking for yet more ways to raise money, over and above that raised by the privatised water companies in England.

If the Scottish Executive is serious, as it continually preaches it is, about providing a better service through the public sector, then it is time it did something about it."

However, a spokesman for Scottish Water defended the utility's failure to sign up to the 1997 agreement guaranteeing free repairs and its decision to use the insurance company, Homeserve, to ask consumers to insure their pipes against future problems.

He said the previous water authorities in Scotland - North, East and West - did not sign up to the 1997 agreement so Scottish Water had no obligation to cover repairs to supply pipes when it was formed in 2002.

The spokesman said Scottish Water had no plans to change its stance and he stressed that the utility did cover the cost of repairs in "certain circumstances for vulnerable customers".

He said: "We recognise that many customers do not even know that they have responsibility for their water supply pipe within their property boundary. Working with Homeserve is helping us to raise our customers' awareness of their plumbing and drainage responsibility within their property boundary."

He added: "This service - which is non-compulsory - adds peace of mind for customers."

This latest criticism of Scottish Water comes just after Jo Armstrong, a former ministerial adviser, called for the utility to be privatised or changed into a not-for-profit company.

Earlier this year, it lost its chairman when Alan Alexander resigned suddenly after the three water regulators told parliament his plans would not meet their demands for improved water quality and greater help in development.