Pendle MP, Gordon Prentice, today welcomed news from United Utilities that village halls and community centres are to be included in the site area charging moratorium alongside places of worship, scout and guide associations and community amateur sports clubs.

United Utilities Chief Executive, Philip Green, told the MP that the moratorium is to continue for a further year.

The MP commented: "Water charges can be crippling for many small organisations. I welcome this move and hope that people get in touch with United Utilities to follow it through."

Note to Editors: United Utilities Chief Executive, Philip Green, wrote

We know that our original plans for site area charging caused significant concern for some organisations in our region and since introducing our moratorium a year ago we have continued to work on implementing a fair system for charging for these services.

We welcomed the Government’s decision to legislate to allow water companies to give concessions to certain community and voluntary groups and are pleased that the Flood and Water Management Bill is progressing through its Parliamentary stages.

We have confirmed with our regulator, Ofwat, that United Utilities (UU) is to continue the moratorium for a further year (2010/11), and extend it to include eligible village halls and community centres. We have taken this step following detailed discussions with Ofwat, Defra and affected customers.

The changes from April 2010 will be:

Eligible village halls and community centres will be able to apply to be included in the moratorium - alongside places of worship, scout and guide associations, and community amateur sports clubs.

All moratorium customers will be treated the same and will pay these charges based on their rateable value or standing charge, subject to a minimum annual charge of about £100.

The costs of the moratorium will be borne by customers, increasing their bill, on average, by about 75p a year. We believe, in the context of next year’s overall bills falling by £15 on average in our region, this is a good outcome for all our customers, many of whom benefit from the contribution these voluntary organisations make to the community.

These changes have been introduced to align our site area charging policy with the proposed legislation on this issue, in anticipation of it being enacted for the following charging year.

UU is writing to all existing moratorium customers explaining what will happen to their charges from April 2010. We are also writing to eligible village halls and community centres to let them know how they can apply to benefit from the moratorium.

ends