The Water Supply Licence (New Customer Exception) Regulations 2005
The Water Industry Act 1991 (“the Act”), as amended by the Water Act 2003, requires water undertakers to grant licensed water suppliers access to their supply systems under certain conditions in order to supply water to eligible premises of customers. A number of requirements must be satisfied in relation to each of the premises supplied by a licensed water supplier. One such (“the threshold requirement”) is that, at the time when the licensed water supplier first enters into an undertaking with a customer to give a supply of water to any premises, the total quantity of water estimated to be supplied to the premises annually pursuant to the undertaking is not less than 50 megalitres (or such different quantity of water as may be substituted by the Secretary of State or the National Assembly for Wales in regulations) (section 17D(2) of the Act).