‘Local authorities and housing associations could face having to refund millions of pounds to tenants after a council lost a test case in the High Court on water re-selling, it has been claimed.’
Local Government Lawyer, 2nd December 2019
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘Thames Water has been ordered to pay out £120m to compensate customers over poor management of leaks.’
BBC News, 7th June 2018
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘When the supply of gas to your house fails, you are entitled to compensation from the gas undertaker for the inconvenience. If that failure has been caused by another utility’s burst water main, the gas undertaker may seek to recoup its expenses for repair to its own infrastructure and the compensation it has had to pay out to consumers. A simple enough picture.’
UK Human Rights Blog, 3rd February 2018
Source: ukhumanrightsblog.com
‘On 18 December 2017 the BBC reported ‘Water cremation’ plans on hold over environmental fears following an earlier refusal* by Severn Trent Water to grant a trade effluent permit to Sandwell Council who wished to operate an alkaline hydrolysis plant (“resomation”) for the disposal of human remains.’
Law & Religion UK, 21st December 2017
Source: www.lawandreligionuk.com
‘A water company has been fined £300,000 after admitting polluting the drinking water of more than 700,000 people.’
Daily Telegraph, 10th October 2017
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘Rochdale BH is a social housing provider (of what was the council’s housing stock). The issue in this case – heard as a preliminary issue – was whether Rochdale BH was a water reseller under the terms of The Water Resale Order 2006 in that charges for water it made as a part of the rent.’
Nearly Legal, 23rd April 2017
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
‘Thames Water has been fined a record £20m after pumping nearly 1.5 billion litres of untreated sewage into the River Thames.’
BBC News, 22nd March 2017
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘Southern Water has been fined a record £2m for flooding beaches in Kent with raw sewage, leaving them closed to the public for nine days.’
The Guardian, 19th December 2016
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘Earlier this month judgment was handed down by the Court of Appeal in R v Thames Water Utilities Ltd [2015] EWCA Crim 960, examining what should be done when a corporate offender’s turnover is so large that it falls outside the scale set down in the sentencing guidelines. This is the first case of its kind to come before the Court of Appeal since publication of the Definitive Guideline for Environmental Offences by the Sentencing Council in July 2014. Rejecting Thames Water’s appeal against a £250,000 fine, the court said that fines levied against very large companies “had to bring home the appropriate message to the directors and shareholders of the company” and could go as high as 100% of pre-tax profits. ‘
Henderson Chambers, June 2015
Source: www.hendersonchambers.co.uk
‘ Companies repeatedly convicted of regulatory offences should expect fines to be in the millions of pounds following a string of recent court cases.’
OUT-LAW.com, 22nd June 2015
Source: www.out-law.com
‘Companies that persistently breach environmental regulations should expect a “substantial increase” in fines levied for their second and subsequent offences, judges in the Court of Appeal have warned.’
OUT-LAW.com, 12th June 2015
Source: www.out-law.com
‘Water and sewage utility companies are “public authorities” for the purposes of the environmental information regulations, and are bound by them accordingly, the Administrative Appeals Chamber of the Upper Tribunal has ruled.’
UK Human Rights Blog, 16th April 2015
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
‘Ofwat has confirmed that Bristol Water has committed to change its procedures and structures to address an alleged abuse of dominance in the provision of water infrastructure.’
Full story (PDF)
Zenith Chambers, 1st April 2015
Source: www.zenithchambers.co.uk
‘As my colleague Robin Hopkins has warned, the decision of the Upper Tribunal in Fish Legal looks like a pretty big beast: sixty pages on whether water companies are public authorities for the purposes of the Environmental Information Regulations, applying the CJEU’s lengthy ruling on the points of principle (for which, see this post by Chris Knight).’
Panopticon, 24th February 2015
Source: www.panopticonblog.com
‘Under the Water Industry Act 1991 sewerage undertakers were impliedly empowered to discharge surface water and other non-pollutant water into private watercourses to which they were already discharging at the time the Act came into force, but had no right to create new outfalls into such watercourses without the agreement of their owners.’
WLR Daily, 2nd July 2014
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
Supreme Court, 2nd July 2014
‘In Ground Rents (Regisport) Ltd v Dowlen [2014] UKUT 144 (LC), the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) had to – once again – grapple with s.20B, Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. The facts are quite straightforward. Imagine, if you will, that there is a modern development of three blocks of flats. It was developed by Countryside Properties (UK) Ltd, who were also the original landlords under all the long leases. Once the leases had been created, the freehold was transferred to the appellant.’
NearlyLegal, 13th June 2014
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
“There are those who say that service charges are a dry subject. To them I say, welcome to Wallace-Jarvis v (1) Optima (Cambridge) Ltd (2) Khazai [2013] UKUT 328 (LC).”
NearlyLegal, 29th July 2013
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
“The breach by a sewerage undertaker of its duty under section 106 of the Water Industry Act 1991 to permit connection of a private sewer to the public sewer did not give rise to a liability in nuisance.”
WLR Daily, 27th March 2013
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
“The Competition Appeal Tribunal today delivered that rarest of beasts: a judgment awarding damages in a follow-on claim. After its decade-long fight, Albion Water has been awarded around £2 million for Dŵr Cymru’s abuse of dominant position in relation to the price it was prepared to charge Albion for the use of its water pipes.”
Competition Bulletin from Blackstone Chambers, 28th March 2013
Source: www.competitionbulletin.com
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