Managing private water supplies

A private water supply is any water supply that is not provided by a licensed water company, including water from wells, springs and boreholes.

Private water supplies that are used in houses (drinking, cooking and washing etc) and in businesses must meet certain standards. We check private water supplies meet the legal standards for private water supplies.

Tell us if you use a private water supply.

There are 4 types of private water supply:

• Supplies to a single domestic property
• Small Supplies are those with 2 or more domestic premises but with no commercial use, with use of less than 10m³ a day and fewer than 50 people a day supplied on average
• Large supplies with commercial uses or large domestic supplies - those using more than 10m³ a day or supplying more than 50 people a day on average
• Private distribution networks where mains water is further distributed beyond the responsibility of the licensed water company such as water that is further distributed on caravan parks, large industrial estates or country estates

We must:

• Do risk assessments on all supplies other than those that supply a single domestic building to decide how often and what type of monitoring we need to do
• Monitor private water supplies in accordance with the Government regulations
• Maintain a register of all known private water supplies in the district 

We charge for these services:

• Risk assessments: £40 per hour up to a maximum of £500 
• Investigations: £40 per hour up to a maximum of £100
• Granting of authorisation: £40 per hour up to a maximum of £100
• Sampling and analysis of small water supplies: £40 per hour up to a maximum of £100, plus analysis at cost up to a maximum of £25 
• Check monitoring of large or commercial supplies: £40 per hour up to a maximum of £100, plus analysis at cost up to a maximum of £100
• Audit monitoring of large or commercial supplies: - £40 per hour up to a maximum of £100, plus analysis at cost up to a maximum of £500