Water Industry Act 1991

41 Duty to comply with water main requisition

(1) It shall be the duty of a water undertaker (in accordance with section 44 below) to provide a water main to be used for providing such supplies of water to premises in a particular locality in its area as (so far as those premises are concerned) are sufficient for domestic purposes, if–

(a) the undertaker is required to provide the main by a notice served on the undertaker by one or more of the persons who under subsection (2) below are entitled to require the provision of the main for that locality;

(b) the premises in that locality to which those supplies would be provided by means of that main are—

(i) premises consisting in buildings or parts of buildings; or

(ii) premises which will so consist when proposals made by any person for the erection of buildings or parts of buildings are carried out;

and

(c) the conditions specified in section 42 below are satisfied in relation to that requirement.

(2) Each of the following persons shall be entitled to require the provision of a water main for any locality, that is to say—

(a) the owner of any premises in that locality;

(b) the occupier of any premises in that locality;

(c) any local authority within whose area the whole or any part of that locality is situated;

(d) where the whole or any part of that locality is situated in a new town, within the meaning of the [1981 c. 64.] New Towns Act 1981—

(i) the Commission for the New Towns; and

(ii) the Development Board for Rural Wales or the development corporation for the new town, according to whether or not the new town is situated within the area for which that Board is for the time being responsible;

and

(e) where the whole or any part of that locality is situated within an area designated as an urban development area under Part XVI of the [1980 c. 65.] Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980, the urban development corporation.

(3) The duty of a water undertaker under this section to provide a water main shall be owed to the person who requires the provision of the main or, as the case may be, to each of the persons who joins in doing so.

(4) Where a duty is owed by virtue of subsection (3) above to any person, any breach of that duty which causes that person to sustain loss or damage shall be actionable at the suit of that person; but, in any proceedings brought against a water undertaker in pursuance of this subsection, it shall be a defence for the undertaker to show that it took all reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence to avoid the breach.

(5) In this section “local authority”, in relation to the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple, includes, respectively, the Sub-Treasurer of the Inner Temple and the Under-Treasurer of the Middle Temple.