Scottish Water has announced it will help housebuilders by delaying the point at which connection charges are payable at sites across the country.

The move - which will ease the financial burden on housebuilders - is part of Scottish Water's continuing support for development and economic growth in these difficult times.

At present, developers pay their connection charges at the early stages of their site development and well before any houses are sold.

However, from 1 July, 2009 developers will not be asked for payment until they require their first connection.

The site start-up is often an expensive phase, with many up-front costs which developers are required to finance before income from house sales is received.

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Stewart Stevenson, the Infrastructure Minister, said: "Scottish Water has continued to deliver for developers in recent years, by creating new capacity in its assets across Scotland. This very welcome announcement will help developers’ cash flows and build our efforts to support housebuilding and protect jobs during these challenging economic times."

This announcement signals how Scottish Water and the development industry are continuing to work in partnership to help shape the economy of Scotland.

Ronnie Mercer, Chair of Scottish Water, said he was delighted that Scottish Water was able to help housebuilders by delaying the timing of charges for connections: "We are pleased to be able to make this positive change. New homes and new customers are also good for Scottish Water."

Already Scottish Water has invested about £65m to create growth in water and waste water projects Scotland-wide. They will support those housebuilders who construct and upgrade networks as part of their development plans, with payments of nearly £18m annually.

(GK/JM)