---
title: "Balance of charges for developer services in the water industry in England and Wales"
ocid: "ocds-b5fd17-b15cc2bd-bfde-496f-bdc6-18c9cab0cfb6"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-b5fd17-b15cc2bd-bfde-496f-bdc6-18c9cab0cfb6"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-b15cc2bd-bfde-496f-bdc6-18c9cab0cfb6.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-b15cc2bd-bfde-496f-bdc6-18c9cab0cfb6.json"
source: "Contracts Finder"
current_stage: "Award"
buyer: "WATER SERVICES REGULATION AUTHORITY (OFWAT)"
published: "2020-03-16"
---

# Balance of charges for developer services in the water industry in England and Wales

Buyer: WATER SERVICES REGULATION AUTHORITY (OFWAT)  
Current stage: Award  
OCID: ocds-b5fd17-b15cc2bd-bfde-496f-bdc6-18c9cab0cfb6

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## Summary

The Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat) is conducting a procurement process titled "Balance of charges for developer services in the water industry in England and Wales." This procurement, categorised under general management consultancy services, is aimed at reviewing and reformulating the balance of charges rules impacting water companies in both England and Wales. The contract is valued at £88,355 and was awarded on 4th December 2019, with the contract period running from 5th December 2019 to 31st March 2020. This contract, which employed an open procurement method, is located in Birmingham and London, UK, and is now complete.

This tender presents valuable opportunities for businesses specialising in consultancy services, particularly those with expertise in the water sector, economics, or regulatory frameworks. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) could find themselves well-positioned to participate, especially if they possess capabilities in reviewing financial regulations or developing economic models. With the focus on improving balance of charges and addressing environmental costs, firms that align with sustainability practices may also be particularly competitive in this arena.

## Notice

This study concerns the balance of charges, which is the costs that are incurred by water companies as a result of new connections and new developments and the revenue that they receive from developers, new and existing customers. The motivation for the study is that we think that our rule for the balance of charges in our English rules can be improved, and we anticipate that we may decide to include a rule on balance of charges in the charging rules for developer services that we introduce for Welsh companies. We want to use this study to help inform us as to how we might reformulate balance of charges rules for English companies and, separately, Welsh companies. In doing this, we would bear in mind other considerations, including our future engagement and consultation with stakeholders, and having regard to relevant government charging guidance. The focus of this study is on our charging rules rather than companies' adherence to them. The requirements are: review our approach, as set out in our charging rules, to the balance of charges, in particular with reference to underlying economic rationale or other rationales given in policy documents and elsewhere; review arrangements analogous to the balance of charges in similar industries, for example in the water sector in Scotland or internationally, and for insets in the electricity and gas markets in England; differences in approaches and their underlying rationales; develop options for future balance of charges arrangement that are focused on meeting specific objectives, to be agreed as part of the study assess each option using an assessment framework developed for the study. The Supplier will be required to prepare a clear explanation of the broad cost categories incurred by water companies as a result of new connections or new developments and how those costs are recovered: One-off costs incurred directly as a result of the specific development, including new connections, mains requisitions and diversions, and the charges associated with these; Other one off costs and charges for the wider network, shared across developments , new connections and other sources of growth, e.g. increases in treatment capacity Income offset provision; Ongoing costs incurred as a result of serving customers in the new properties, and how these compare to costs for existing properties. It will be key to distinguish between marginal costs associated with new customers versus average costs of customers, as well as costs associated with maintaining infrastructure for new developments as compared with the wider network. The Supplier should include within scope the wider social and environmental costs associated with the water sector, notably water scarcity / water resource costs, and infrastructure resilience. The Supplier should advise on the scale of different costs rather than providing a detailed analysis of individual cost elements, how they might vary between developments, the complexity of estimaties Additional information: For further information,please contact procurement@ofwat.gov.uk

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Contracts Finder |
| Latest notice | https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/f0ad6b3a-65d8-417c-b164-750d39883386 |
| Notice type | Award Notice |
| Procurement type | Standard |
| Procurement category | Services |
| Procurement method | Open |
| Procurement method details | Open procedure (below threshold) |
| Tender suitability | SME |
| Awardee scale | Large |
| All stages | Award |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 16 Mar 2020 |
| Submission deadline | 12 Nov 2019 |
| Future notice date | Not specified |
| Award date | 4 Dec 2019 |
| Contract period | 5 Dec 2019 - 31 Mar 2020 |
| Recurrence | Not specified |

## Values

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender value | £88,355 |
| Lots value | Not specified |
| Awards value | £88,355 |
| Contracts value | Not specified |

## Status

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender status | Complete |
| Lots status | Not specified |
| Awards status | Active |
| Contracts status | Not specified |

## Buyer

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Main buyer | WATER SERVICES REGULATION AUTHORITY (OFWAT) |
| Locality | BIRMINGHAM |
| Post town | Birmingham |
| Postcode | B5 4UA |
| Country | England |
| ITL 1 | TLG West Midlands (England) |
| ITL 2 | TLG3 West Midlands |
| ITL 3 | TLG31 Birmingham |
| Local authority | Birmingham |
| Electoral ward | Ladywood |
| Westminster constituency | Birmingham Ladywood |
| Delivery location | TLG West Midlands (England), TLI London |

## Supplier

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Number of suppliers | 1 |
| Supplier names | FONTIER ECONOMICS |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

- 79 - Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security

### Codes

- 79411000 - General management consultancy services

## Release History

- 16 Mar 2020 at 09:17 - Award - Award Notice - https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/f0ad6b3a-65d8-417c-b164-750d39883386

## Documents

- https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/f0ad6b3a-65d8-417c-b164-750d39883386
  16th March 2020 - Awarded contract notice on Contracts Finder

## Provenance

This Markdown file is an alternate public rendering of the D3 Tenders contract record. The canonical page is https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-b5fd17-b15cc2bd-bfde-496f-bdc6-18c9cab0cfb6. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-b5fd17-b15cc2bd-bfde-496f-bdc6-18c9cab0cfb6.json.