Wonderful on Tap
Supply Pipe Replacement Grant Scheme
For approved underground installers: help us to make the most of our water.
Up to March 2025, we're replacing customers' water supply pipes across Coventry that are made of lead or leaking - and we need your help to complete this ambitious work.
Our offer to underground installers
Over the next few years, we want to upgrade up to 25,000 customer owned water supply pipes across Coventry (CV1-CV6, and select areas of CV7). It’s one of the biggest recent investments in local water networks and will protect safe, reliable and high-quality water supplies for the city.
It’s an ambitious plan, and we can’t do it alone. That’s why we’re offering a Supply Pipe Grant to industry-approved underground pipe installers, to help us with the upgrade.
We’ll pay a generous grant contribution to go towards the cost of upgrading a customers’ water supply pipe if you find that it is lead or leaking. In many cases that might mean the customer has to pay nothing at all – and even for the more complicated jobs, the cost will be reduced.
We’re making the grant available for jobs you complete before March 2025 – so this is a great opportunity to boost your business.
If you’re an underground pipe installer looking to apply to the scheme, email Leadreplacement.grant@severntrent.co.uk and one of our team will be in touch with more details.
If you’re a customer you can find out about the Grant Scheme on our website.
Benefits for your business
To work with us as part of the Grant Scheme you must:
- Be a VAT registered company
- Be a member of an industry approved contractor scheme e.g. WaterMark, WIAP.
- We have more information about how to join Severn Trent approved contractor scheme on our website.
- Show confirmation that you can complete underground services and are a water supply pipe installer capable of lead pipe replacements.
- Be able to work in Coventry CV1-6, and areas of CV7 – we will not provide grants for cases outside this area.
- Be able to explain the benefits of the scheme when recruiting customers.
Benefits for your customer
What other installers have to say
How we work together
Plumber responsibilites:
- Inspect your customer's home to see what needs to be done.
- Apply for the grant.
- Replace the private supply pipe with a new, sustainable plastic pipe.
- Re-fill any holes and repair ground surfaces at your property.
- Manage your supply pipe appointments and keep your customer up to date.
- Talk to your customer about any additional costs that aren’t covered by the grant.
- Submit evidence to us that the repair or replacement has been completed.
Severn Trent responsibilites:
- Replace the public pipe (from the water main to the private supply pipe) with a new, sustainable plastic pipe if required.
- Install a new boundary box and external smart meter if required.
- Pay the agreed grant contribution towards the costs.
What customers need to know
A step-by-step guide to what happens:
Please see our communication guidance below which includes useful tips on how to advertise the grant scheme. You can arrange an inspection with the customer at this time.
During the visit to your customer’s property, check to see that their supply pipe qualifies for the Grant contribution. You should discuss the grant contribution and any additional costs to the customer at this stage. On inspection, the customer should read and sign the Customer Terms and Conditions, Authorisation form and photo evidence should be captured at this stage.
Make sure you have agreed with your customers about the proposed point of entry, internal works and how you plan to reinstate any ground surfaces and any materials to be used, and they are clear with how this will work.
To be eligible for the Grant, the customer’s supply pipe must be for a domestic property in the area CV1 to CV6, and parts of CV7 and lead or leaking.
About leaking pipes
If a pipe is leaking but not made from lead, this will still qualify for a grant. If the pipe is made from anything different to MDPE we recommend a full replacement rather than a patch repair.
We’ll need proof of the leak, such as a picture, a Leakage order number or letter from our metering team. If the leak is internal, for example on an appliance or shower, this will not be eligible for a repair under the grant scheme.
Please contact the Grant Team first or email us at leadreplacement.grant@severntrent.co.uk if you suspect that the customer has a leak but they have no Leakage order number. These usually start with a ‘6’ and are eight digits long. We might need to issue a repair notice to the customer after investigating the property.
If a customer already has a Leakage number, then it is likely that they’ll be eligible under the grant, but you need to be mindful of timeframes for repair and the severity of the leak. You might even need to consider a temporary repair until Severn Trent can attend to do connections on joint supply properties.
About lead and joint supplies
If a customer is on a lead supply, then this would be eligible for the grant scheme. If your customer shares their water supply with one or more neighbours, we encourage you to try to complete both works within a set timeframe. You will receive a separate grant payment for each property you upgrade. We understand that this isn’t always possible so in certain scenarios it might be an option to take a single customer off the original supply as per our disconnection process.
About smart meters
We will also install a smart meter as part of the scheme. This will not change the way that the customer is billed. If they already have a meter, we will upgrade this and exchange it to a smart meter. There will be information about smart meters in the Terms and Conditions that you share with your customer. Read more about our smart meters.
If your customer is eligible for the scheme, you should submit the application on their behalf along with the customer form and evidence, through our dedicated online portal.
For joint supplies or where you are signing multiple customers up on a road, please try to submit these applications together.
Our Virtual Field Team will review your grant application within 7 days and let you and your customer know if you have been successful, or if we require further information to support your application.
If successful, you can now confirm the start date with your customer if you are not waiting for any enabling works first by Severn Trent. Severn Trent will also call you and your customer to arrange a date to complete our public works, if needed.
Please be aware, there might be a delay if we need more customers to sign up or there is a road closure on the job. With road closures we will require 3 or more customers to justify the expense of a road closure so we will ask for you to sign further customers up in these scenarios. We can supply information of properties who have previously registered interest to help.
If the application has been unsuccessful we will let you know.
On installation day, upgrade the water supply pipe as agreed with the customer. Please take photos of the works being done, for our records.
Severn Trent will be responsible for replacing our lead communication pipes and reconnecting your customer’s water supply to the main supply and fitting the new smart meter. As part of the grant scheme, there is no new connection fee. This will be included as part of the scheme, so Severn Trent will make a free public connection.
Where possible, we will attend at the same time as you, but this could be before or after step 5.
If we attend beforehand, you will be able to connect to the new supply pipe. We’ll let you, the customer and neighbours (where applicable) know when we plan to visit.
It's time to reinstate the excavation and repair any ground surfaces to the best possible standard and take pictures of the finished works. If your customer is on a joint supply you will need to disconnect them from the old lead supply and connect them onto their new plastic supply if you have attended after Severn Trent. Using the completion form, providing information, photographic evidence, self-certification (Reg 6 form) and request payment.
We’ll pay you within 14 working days by BACS bank transfer when you tell us you have completed a job and provided the correct information.
Part of our Green Recovery Programme
Green Recovery is a range of exciting programmes updating our water networks, making our region an even better place to live and using the latest technology to give our customers a water and waste service that is fit for the future.
Doing right by our customers, our environment, and our water, for generations to come.
Legal notice about public works
In Coventry, there are some streets and properties where we can’t get access to do public works until after March 2025. This is because a Section 58 Notice is in place, which allows a local authority to protect a street from any further street works following any major surfacing works.
You can check this through One Network, if you have a paid account. Severn Trent can also provide a document supplied by Coventry City Council with all known existing Section 58 notices.
The work can start as soon as we approve your application for the grant which can be between 21-120 days depending on traffic management requirements and resource, the customer will be contacted to organise this.