Ofwat is consulting on a proposal to grant Anglian Water a variation to its appointment to enable it to be the water supplier to a site in Cambridge in place of Cambridge Water.

The proposal would allow Anglian Water to supply water to the Northstowe Phase 1 development of 1,500 household properties.

New appointments and variations include one company replacing another as the appointee for a specific geographic area. Anglian Water will serve its customers by taking a bulk supply of water from Cambridge Water.

Anglian Water is proposing to charge customers based on Cambridge Water's existing water charges. Anglian Water will be required to offer customers at least the equivalent levels of service to Cambridge Water.

Anglian Water has previously been granted three variations to its appointment as a water and sewerage undertaker. The first was in May 1997, when Anglian Water obtained a variation to its appointment to serve the Buxted Chicken site in Surrey. The second variation to its appointment was in March 1998 at RAF Finningley in South Yorkshire, and the third was in July 2013 at Woods Meadow in Oulton.

New appointments and variations are the route by which one company replaces another as the appointed water and/or sewerage company for a specified area. The replacement water and sewerage company will have all of the same duties and responsibilities as the previous statutory water and sewerage company for the specified area.

There are three qualifying criteria for seeking a new appointment or variation:

• an unserved area does not contain any premises that already receive services from an appointed water or sewerage company ;
• large user - a customer uses (or is likely to use) at least 50 million litres of water a year (in England) or 250 million litres of water a year (in Wales) at each of its premises and wants to change its supplier; or
• the existing appointed company agrees to transfer part of its area to a different company.