Water Act 1945

36 Duty of statutory water undertakers to accept guarantees from local authorities.

(1) The provisions of this section shall have effect in any case where the owners or occupiers of any premises in any area can require statutory water undertakers to bring water to that area if the aggregate amount of the water rates which will be payable annually in respect of those premises will not be less than a prescribed fraction of the cost to be incurred by the undertakers in complying with the requisition, and if the owners or occupiers of those premises agree to take a supply of water for a prescribed period.

(2) If, in any such case as aforesaid, the aggregate amount of the water rates which would be payable annually in respect of any premises in the area is not sufficient to enable a valid requisition to be made by the owners and occupiers of those premises, the local authority of the district in which the area is situated may undertake that, until the water rates payable for any year in respect of premises in that area amount to a sum which would have enabled such a requisition to be made, or until the expiration of a period of twelve years, whichever first occurs, the authority will make good to the undertakers in each year the difference between that sum and the amount received by the undertakers in respect of water supplied, whether for domestic or non-domestic purposes, in that year in respect of premises in that area, and thereupon the undertakers shall lay any necessary mains and bring water to that area.

(3) Any two or more local authorities may combine for the purpose of giving such an undertaking as aforesaid.

(4) If the undertakers, after tender to them of an undertaking which satisfies the foregoing provisions of this section, do not before the expiration of three months lay the necessary mains and bring water to the area in question, they shall, unless they show that the failure was due to unavoidable accident or other unavoidable cause, be guilty of an offence against this Act.

(5) In this section the expression " prescribed " means prescribed by the local enactments relating to the undertaking in question.