Chancery Division of High Court hears battle between council and tenant over water agreements and ‘re-selling’
The High Court is this week hearing a test case that will consider whether local authorities and housing associations have acted lawfully in failing to pass on to their tenants any discount or commission agreed with water companies.
The case, which is being heard in the Chancery Division of the High Court on 25-29 October 2019, has been brought by the Royal Borough of Kingston-upon-Thames.
The council is seeking a declaration that its water agreement did not constitute “re-sale” of water under the relevant legislation (subject to a statutory requirement to pass on any discount), but instead was a form of agency contract or a statutorily permitted arrangement to sell water on behalf of Thames Water.
Law firm Deighton Pierce Glynn said its client would argue that the agreement between Kingston and Thames Water was materially the same as that considered in the 2016 case of Jones v Southwark London Borough Council and the same conclusion should follow.
The Jones case “established that hundreds of thousands of tenants had been overcharged for water and sewerage over decades due to the failure to pass on to them the discounts agreed with the water company by the local authority”, the firm said.
Deighton Pierce Glynn said it was likely that the judge would reserve judgment at the end of the hearing involving Kingston and it would follow after several weeks.
