Water (Scotland) Act 1980

47 Domestic water rate in certain cases

(1) Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provisions of this Part, no domestic water rate shall be payable in respect of any premises to which a water authority were immediately before 16th May 1949 by virtue of any enactment or agreement under an obligation to provide a supply of water free of charge, and no charge or other payment shall be required by the authority to be made in respect of that supply.

(2) Where by virtue of any local enactment in force immediately before 16th May 1949 the domestic water rate was leviable in any area specified in the local enactment at an amount per pound determined by the local enactment (whether as an amount per pound specified therein or as an amount per pound being a proportion so specified of the amount per pound at which the domestic water rate would otherwise be payable, or otherwise), the domestic water rate shall during such period as is specified in the local enactment be payable in that area at the amount per pound so specified:

Provided that if in any year during the said period the domestic water rate levied generally in respect of lands and heritages within the region or islands area is lower than the rate falling to be levied for that year in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this subsection, the rate to be levied in such area as aforesaid shall not exceed the amount of the rate levied generally within the region or islands area.

(3) Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provisions of this Part, no domestic water rate shall be payable in respect of the provision of a supply of water to any premises to which a water authority were, by virtue of any enactment or agreement in force immediately before 16th May 1949, under an obligation to provide such a supply on terms more favourable to the person having the vested interest in the obligation than those which, apart from the obligation, would have been applicable under the enactments in force immediately before that date relating to the supply of water by the authority in the limits of supply in which the premises are situated, and the supply shall continue to be provided on the following, and no other, terms, that is to say—

(a) where immediately before 16th May 1949 there was leviable under such an enactment a rate other than a public water rate, on such terms as may be agreed between the authority and the person having the vested interest in the obligation;

(b) in any other case on the terms on which immediately before that date it was provided under the enactment or agreement.

(4) In determining for the purposes of the foregoing provisions of this section whether a supply of water provided under any enactment or agreement in force immediately before 16th May 1949 was provided free of charge or was such a supply as is mentioned in subsection (3), or in determining the sum which by virtue of that subsection is to be paid in respect of such a supply, no account shall be taken of any public water rate levied under any such enactment in respect of the premises so supplied or of any undertaking (other than an undertaking to pay a rate or a charge) entered into by the person having the vested interest in the obligation in consideration of which the supply was provided.

(5) Any question arising under this section whether a water authority are required to provide a supply of water free of charge, or whether a supply is such a supply as is mentioned in subsection (3), or as to the terms on which a supply was provided immediately before 16th May 1949, or on which by virtue of this section a supply is to continue to be provided or otherwise, shall, in default of agreement, be referred to the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of State may determine it himself or, if he thinks fit, may refer it for determination by arbitration.

(6) In this section the expression " public water rate " means in relation to any supply any rate called the public water rate in the local enactment by virtue of which the supply is provided on special terms.

(7) Nothing in the provisions of subsection (1) or (3) shall be construed as continuing any exemption conferred by either of these subsections from the payment in whole or in part of domestic water rate, where the water authority have ceased to be under the obligation which gave rise to that exemption.