Utility connection costs

[Saints1]

Hi all, I wondered if anybody could shed some light on some of the quotes I am getting back from utility companies with regard to new connections. Whether they think they are reasonable or not? 
 

United utilities have quoted £7k for a water connection. Now the mains water is on the other side of the road so this cost includes them digging the road up and bringing it to my boundary (approx 7 meters from mains to my boundary) I will be doing all the trench work on my own property and leaving them enough pipe work for them to connect on to. 
 

Scottish power have quoted £4k to install 3 phase to my self build. Luckily the mains electric is on my side of the road so it’s a 1 meter dig of the public footpath to connect on to. Again I’ll be digging the trench on my land and placing the relevant ducting in. 
 

The gas company have not provided a quote yet as they state that there is no point until there is a gas box built in to the property for them to connect to as it will probably be past April next year when this will be completed and by then there charges will have increased. I do know that the main gas pipe is again on the opposite side of the road with the water main. So this will be again another digging and trenching across the road scenario…. 
 

so….

Water- £7k 

electricity - (3-phase) £4k 

gas - Unkown

 

 

1) Do the above quotations sound reasonable? 

 

2) Does anybody have any previous knowledge or similar situation in regard to gas being located on the opposite side of the road and could provide details of how much they were quoted? 
 

 

[MikeSharp01]

They sound about OK to me.

 

Our costs were (IIRC):

 

Re-route Electricity from old house overhead to utilities block by the pole (pole on our land) down the pole along a 400mm trench, which we dug, and up into the meter box: £1200+VAT (2018)

Move gas from the old house, which we knocked down, to utilities block in trench we dug and then remove it completely when we decided not to have gas £840+VAT (2018 / 2021)

 

Do you really need Gas, might be worth working out if a ASHP might be a better solution if you are building a well insulated / air tight property.

[Bonner]

Mine was a lot less, 2.5k for water and 2k for electric with road crossing. Managed to get them to collaborate and only dig one trench (a lot more difficult than you might think!). Go back and challenge the costs, ask for a breakdown.

[Redbeard]

 

7 hours ago, MikeSharp01 said:

Do you really need Gas, might be worth working out if a ASHP might be a better solution if you are building a well insulated / air tight property.

 

+1 re no gas, although of course you can have no idea of how much you will save till you get a quote. Ditto agree with @Bonner re negotiating.

[G and J]

Uk power networks charged 9.4k to bring supply 10m from pole to our boundary, all trenching done by us on our site. Big chunk if that was the cost of the road closure, even though was on our side of the road and the road was never actually closed.

 

Cadent charged  1.7k to remove the gas supply.

 

Neither cost was welcome

 

We have water, just need to pay to connect back to drains

[Saints1]

4 hours ago, Bonner said:

Mine was a lot less, 2.5k for water and 2k for electric with road crossing. Managed to get them to collaborate and only dig one trench (a lot more difficult than you might think!). Go back and challenge the costs, ask for a breakdown.

Many thanks for your reply…

 

They have provided a breakdown (water) so to speak of contestable work and none contestable but I can’t tell from the breakdown what’s what… I’ll add it to here and see what people think and if you can deceiver it a bit better (or a lot better) than I can.

 

 

 

[Roger440]

I think there are plenty who would be grateful to get away with prices that low....................

[Bonner]

The biggest part is pipe laying which is contestable so you can get alternative quotes from LRQA accredited contractors as noted in the quote.

[SBMS]

7 hours ago, G and J said:

road was never actually closed

Same here. Made a formal complaint (it’s not lawful for them to keep the money if no closure occurred I found out during the process). Received a full refund. 

[Saints1]

3 hours ago, Bonner said:

The biggest part is pipe laying which is contestable so you can get alternative quotes from LRQA accredited contractors as noted in the quote.

So if I find a local approved company and ask them to provide a quote solely on the pipe laying what are the chances of it being substantially lower? I mean if we are talking near £1k saving it’s 100% worth it. 
I will look to shop around but I have a feeling I’ll have to bite the bullet, sometimes I feel the utility companies have you over a barrel. 
 

Thank you again though for taking your time to help me. 

[Saints1]

8 hours ago, Bonner said:

Mine was a lot less, 2.5k for water and 2k for electric with road crossing. Managed to get them to collaborate and only dig one trench (a lot more difficult than you might think!). Go back and challenge the costs, ask for a breakdown.

I did query this with United utilities in regard to linking in with the gas supplier and utilising just one dig. The case manager practically laughed at me and just said “no we don’t do that” 

Im just amazed that local authorities don’t insist on this happening when confronted with similar scenarios. Surely they don’t want the road lifting twice……. Having said that, it’s probably more money for the council having to get two permits for road closure management.