Utilities Assessment: capacity enquiries section by section

A Utilities Assessment answers one question for the council and a different question for the board. The council wants to know that the site can be served without unacceptable off-site works. The board wants to know what the connections cost and when they arrive. Both answers come from the same evidence: what is already in the ground, what capacity the network operators will confirm in writing, and how long any reinforcement or diversion takes. Assemble that evidence in the order below and the document writes itself.

Recording what is already in the ground

Start with records, then verify them on site. Network operator plans are indicative, and the phrase every civil engineer learns is that the drawing shows where the service was meant to go.

Request apparatus records from the electricity distribution network operator, the gas transporter, the water and sewerage undertaker, the telecoms operators and any independent network owner. A single utility search service covering multiple asset owners is the efficient route for the first pass. Add the highway authority's records for street lighting and signals, and check for private apparatus, which is on nobody's plans.

Then read the title. Easements and wayleaves that cross the site constrain the layout as firmly as any planning policy, and a transmission wayleave with a standing right of access can sterilise a strip of developable land. Overlay them on the site plan as a constraints drawing rather than describing them in text.

Finally, record the existing supplies serving any buildings to be demolished, including meter positions and capacities. Disconnection and meter removal are lead-time items that get forgotten until the demolition contractor is on site.

Electricity capacity and the point of connection

The electricity enquiry is the one that most often drives programme, so start it early and stage it properly.

A budget estimate gives an indicative figure and an indicative point of connection without commitment, and it is usually enough for a planning submission and a first appraisal. A formal connection application produces a binding offer with a defined point of connection, a stated capacity and a price, and it is the document a funder will want. Ask for both, in that order.

Three variables drive the answer. The total load in kilovolt-amperes, which needs a realistic diversified figure rather than the sum of every breaker. The voltage of the connection, since a low-voltage connection and a high-voltage connection with a customer substation have very different cost and space implications. And the state of the local network, because reinforcement of an upstream asset can dominate the cost and stretch the programme by many months.

Load assumptions have moved. Heat pumps, electric vehicle charging and all-electric kitchens have pushed residential and commercial loads up, and a diversity assumption copied from an older scheme will understate demand. Say in the assessment what diversity factors were used and where they came from.

Contestable works may be carried out by an independent connections provider, with the operator retaining the non-contestable elements. Where an independent distribution network operator adopts the on-site network, that changes the commercial position and sometimes the adoption timetable, so state which route the scheme assumes.

Gas, water and telecoms enquiries

Gas is straightforward where a main of adequate size runs past the site and difficult where it does not. Make the enquiry to the gas transporter or an independent gas transporter, and be realistic about whether the scheme needs gas at all, since an all-electric strategy removes a connection, a meter housing and a lead time. It also changes the Energy Statement argument, so coordinate the two.

Water needs two separate enquiries. A supply enquiry to the water undertaker for potable capacity and pressure, which feeds the Water Supply Assessment, and a pre-development enquiry to the sewerage undertaker for foul and surface water capacity, which feeds the foul drainage evidence and the drainage strategy.

One point of frequent confusion. Section 106 of the Water Industry Act 1991 gives a right to communicate with a public sewer, subject to the undertaker's conditions. It has nothing to do with section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. Name the Act when you cite either, because officers and lawyers reading quickly will assume the planning one.

Telecoms provisioning is rarely a planning constraint, though gigabit connectivity requirements in building regulations and in some local policies mean it should still be recorded. Fibre routes often follow the electricity ducts, which matters for the coordinated services trench.

Diversions and what they do to a programme

Diversions are the single largest programme risk in this document, and they are consistently underestimated.

Sequence them. Identify every asset crossing the developable area or the access. Establish who owns it and whether it sits in an easement, a wayleave or the highway. Request a budget diversion quotation. Then check the lead time for design, for any outage window, and for the statutory notice periods under the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 where the works are in the highway.

High-voltage cables, trunk water mains and strategic sewers can run to a year or more from first enquiry to completed diversion, and outage windows for electricity are often seasonal. If the access works require a highway agreement under section 278 of the Highways Act 1980, that runs in parallel and has its own approval sequence.

Where a diversion is unavoidable, say so in the planning submission and show the diverted route on the layout. A scheme that conceals a diversion until after permission usually finds the layout has to change.

Substations, kiosks and the consents they need

A customer substation is a building. It needs a position that suits the network operator, vehicular access for a heavy vehicle, ventilation, a finished level above any flood risk, and separation from habitable rooms because transformers hum.

Some electricity apparatus benefits from permitted development rights under Part 15 of Schedule 2 to the GPDO 2015, but the practical route on a development site is to show the substation, the gas governor kiosk and any pumping station on the consented layout and elevations. Retro-fitting a 3 metre by 5 metre kiosk into an approved landscape scheme is the kind of change that needs an amendment application and an awkward conversation with the landscape officer.

Two details worth fixing at planning stage. The access route from the public highway, including the turning circle, needs to be shown and it must not run through a pedestrian-only space. And the land transfer or easement to the operator has to be capable of being granted, which means it cannot sit inside an area committed as public open space in a planning obligation.

Phasing utilities against the build programme

Set the utilities out against the construction programme rather than as a standalone list.

1. Budget enquiries at feasibility, before the layout is fixed.
2. Diversion enquiries as soon as the constraints drawing shows an asset in the way.
3. Formal connection applications once loads are firm, typically at technical design.
4. Accepted offers and payment before the point at which the operator's design queue matters.
5. Statutory notices and highway agreements aligned with the enabling works.
6. Energisation and commissioning aligned with first occupation, not with practical completion of the shell.

The pattern that causes trouble is leaving the formal application until the contractor is appointed. The operator's design and delivery queue does not care that the site is mobilised.

Presenting the evidence for validation

Councils vary in what they ask for. Many local validation lists require a services or utilities statement for major applications, and some require confirmation from the sewerage undertaker specifically.

Keep the submitted document short and evidential. A constraints plan showing existing apparatus and easements. A table of enquiries made, to whom, on what date, with the response and its reference number. A statement of the connection strategy for each utility. A note of any diversion, with its route shown. And the programme implications in plain sentences.

Correspondence from the operators belongs in an appendix, redacted of personal contact details. Where a response is still awaited, say so and give the date of the enquiry rather than leaving a gap.

A Utilities Assessment drafted with AI assistance can carry the structure, the policy framing and the enquiry log, and it flags where site data is still missing rather than inventing a figure. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval. The related foul sewage evidence is covered here.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.