Preparing

If you’re planning to build a house that will connect to our network, we have all the information for what you need to do prior to applying for a connection here. 

Preparing for a new single household connection

We would recommend that you commence with planning your design for your connection to both the public water supply and public sewer network as early in the process as possible. When building a new house and you submit the planning applications for either outline or full planning for your development location, the Local Authority will pass your application to us as a statutory consultee in the process. We along with other public bodies may be asked to comment on the planning application within 21 days.

Please contact the Local Authority for the area of your development to commence this process.

We will highlight if there are any items for you to consider when planning your development. Key factors to consider in this planning process for a water and/or sewer connection are the location of your nearest public water supply or public sewer network. In some areas of Scotland, you may be some distance from the nearest public network, and you will need to consider the implications that this may have. 

The nearest public network may be quite a distance from your planned development, and you may have to consider this in the cost of connecting to the water network or alternative options to drain your development on location via another option such as a septic tank for sewage and SUDS (Sustainable Urban Drainage System) for rainfall run-off. We are only legally obliged to take our network to such points to enable a connection at reasonable cost, but we are not required to do anything which is not able to be done at reasonable cost.
Please Note: Scottish Water offer a ‘water connection only’ service.

What is a water ‘Connection Only’ Service?

In the majority of circumstances Scottish Water will only make the physical connection to our public water network. The developer (applicant) would be responsible for all other works associated with a new connection. E.g. laying pipework, excavation, and re-instatement of the public network, including any traffic management. There are some exceptional circumstances where Scottish Water will carry out the excavation of the public water network for Health and Safety reasons. We would advise you of this once you have submitted an application. For more information of what is involved please see our ‘Applying’ & ‘Construction’ sections.

Pre-Development Enquiry Application

If you are unsure where the nearest public network is in relation to your development or need assistance in assessing feasibility of a new connection to the public network a Pre-Development Enquiry Application can be made as early as you wish. 

The Pre-Development Enquiry Application is intended to capture early details relating to your development plans and will allow us to provide you with a response relating to the drainage or water demands of your site. We will provide you with early guidance that may influence the layout or design of your pipework, or the points of connection for water and wastewater supplies. More details of making a PDE Application can be found in the ‘Applying’ section.

Diversions

If your proposed new development impacts Scottish Water’s existing infrastructure, we will work with you to find a viable solution that works for both Scottish Water and you.

We may recommend a slight change in your plans to avoid building over our pipework or we may advise that you will need to divert pipework to ensure we can continue to safely access and maintain our water and sewer network.

Please ensure your contractor has carried out suitable checks for existing public infrastructure within the boundary of your land. This will not always be noted within the land title.

We can be contacted informally for general support questions regarding the process to obtain a new water or waste water connection. This can even take place prior to your planning application being submitted.

Surface water drainage to the combined sewer from domestic extensions

If  you  are  undertaking  an  extension,  which  will  add  to  the  existing  hard  standing  area within the boundary of your property, and are applying to drain these areas to a combined sewer, you must look to limit an increase to your existing surface water discharge rate and volume. For more information, please see our Surface Water to Combined Sewer Domestic Extensions Guide.

You can contact us:

• via email developmentoperations@scottishwater.co.uk
• via telephone by calling the technical team on 0800 389 0379. Lines are open Mon - Thurs 8am - 4pm, Fri 8am - 3.30pm