South East Water has signed a five year contract to become the billing agent for Icosa Water Services Ltd.

The company will be sending Icosa-branded bills to Icosa customers across the country, including those in the south east. The billing service will be for drinking water and waste water, depending on the services each customer receives, and will begin in December.

Icosa Water currently operates across England and Wales under the New Appointment and Variation (NAV) regime which allows new suppliers to enter the market, subject to certain conditions.

It currently operates in 39 licensed UK locations with many more new sites in the pipeline. Its customers are mainly homeowners and tenants on brand new housing developments.

South East Water, which provides drinking water to 2.2 million customers in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire, already has well established joint billing operations with Southern Water, Thames Water and Severn Trent Connect, all of which offer waste water services to its own customers.

Tanya Sephton, Customer Services Director at South East Water, said:

“We see this as a great opportunity to support our customers, the NAV market and extend our commercial operations outside of the south east by supporting an exciting new entrant to the market with our experience of third party billing operations.

“We are also keen to offer similar services to other water and sewerage operators seeking our expertise and experience.”

Rob Bradley, CFO at Icosa Water Services, said:

“South East Water has an exceptional team of experienced staff and a first class billing solution. We are delighted to be working with them to bring competition and best value to our customers as we continue to grow our water business.”