In March 2022, Natural England passed legislation which effectively prevented local planning departments within Norfolk approving planning applications in certain areas unless the developer (this can be anyone looking to add an extension to their home through to a national house builder) could prove that the proposed development does not add further pollution to the water catchment of the Norfolk Rivers, primarily The Bure, The Wensum and the Yare. At the time this had a major effect on development of any kind in Norfolk and most of it came to a standstill. The aim of the scheme is to improve and reduce nutrient export which in turn will improve water quality, water resource usage and habitat creation.
The scheme involves a number of bodies including Natural England, Norfolk Rivers Consortium, Harrison Civils and the four local authorities, North Norfolk, South Norfolk, Breckland and Broadland District Council.
Those four local authorities have formed a partnership call Norfolk Environmental Credits under which they operate the scheme with us. The attached letter from Norfolk Environmental Credits describes how the partnership with us ( Norfolk Rivers Consortium ) works.
We don’t hide the fact that a substantial job such as installing a sewage treatment plant does not come without cost. However the important bit for you is that you, as the homeowner does not have to pay.
Please also see the additional “Costs” section of the FAQ’s
When developers within Norfolk want to build properties they have to show that they are not increasing the pollution within the three main rivers, The Wensum, The Bure and The Yare.
There are many ways they can do this, but one of them is by helping other homeowners within that same catchment area improve their situation, i.e. by replacing their septic tank with more efficient sewage treatment plants.
In proceeding with the scheme the current owner and any future owner are then bound by a unilateral undertaking to look after the new sewage treatment plant. This includes the servicing and maintenance of the plant.
The plant is owned by you at all times and therefore it is just like the roof on your house or your boiler, in that a certain amount of maintenance will be required.
Yes, the tank itself has a 15 year warranty and all of the serviceable parts come with a 3 year warranty which is provided by the manufacturer, Graf.
Nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus provide nutrition for plants and animals and are required for them to grow. They occur naturally in ecosystems, but human activities can increase their supply. An excess of nitrogen and phosphorus can be damaging to the environment because it can lead to eutrophication and algal blooms in rivers and lakes.
The main sources of phosphorus and nitrates in rivers and lakes in the UK are sewage effluent and run-off from agricultural land.
The consortium is made up of specialists in various fields, we have worked together to come up with a solution that has already been tested with the planning departments and has seen planning applications approved using our scheme.
Not necessarily, the development only has to be within the same river catchment area to where the septic tank upgrade takes place. The scheme does not allow developers to build in areas where they couldn’t previously, i.e outside of the current Local Plans that are in place in Norfolk.
We use a Graf sewage treatment plant, Graf is a German company and the only manufacturer of sewage treatment plants that Natural England will currently approve for nutrient neutral areas under this scheme.
Yes. There is a contract to sign and also a unilateral undertaking which includes how you need to look after the plant going forward (See “Post Installation” questions re Servicing and emptying).
You will be given plenty of time to read both documents before having to sign them.
It’s really important that you pick a reputable company to install your new Sewage Treatment Plant that has had 25 years plus worth of experience. Why not Google Search Harrison Civils or Norfolk Rivers Consortium and take a look at our reviews from homeowners that have already been through the process and see what they have to say. You can then compare these with other companies who claim to offer a similar service.
You will receive a Graf One2Clean Sewage Treat Plant which will be sized according to the size of your property and in conjunction with the current building regulations.
Apart from seeing 1 or possibly 2 new inspection covers, depending on your properties need, the only item that you will see above ground is the compressor housing which you can see in the attached photo. This can be positioned along a wall as in the photo, along a hedge or near an outbuilding subject to the surveyors approval.
You will also see below some examples of recent installations and how the area will be left. Please note that we do not re-landscape, lay turf or reseed your garden, It is left level and tidy for you to finish of as required.
In Norfolk, home owners who live within the river catchment area’s of The Bure, The Yare and The Wensum and within the District Council areas of Norfolk Norfolk, South Norfolk, Broadland and Breckland are potentially eligible for the scheme.
When you have registered we will check your postcode and advise you if you fall outside of this area, or you can check the catchment map by clicking on the following link and downloading the map called “Catchment Map”
For other areas of the UK please register and we will check if you live within one of the catchment areas.
The scheme in the main only covers residential properties and therefore businesses, villages hall, church halls and community buildings cannot take advantage.
If you have a business that in some way incorporates residential overnight accommodation that is regularly used, for example a residential care home then please call us to discuss it further.
No. The scheme is open to anyone that meets the general criteria of living within the catchment area and having a property where the installation is possible.
The physical site survey, stage 1 is there to look at your existing set up and a number of other factors at your property that will determine if we can proceed with your installation.
Stage 2 also undertakes various desktop studies in relation to your property and if it qualifies under the scheme.
In some circumstances, unfortunately the property may therefore not be suitable and we will advise you of this after we have completed stage 2 (this is prior to you being fully committed and therefore you will not incur any costs if we cannot proceed).
If you have a mortgage or any other secured borrowing on your property then your lender will need to be party to some of the documents and approve the scheme.
We can provide you with a draft copy of the document that they will need to sign if you want to approach them first to obtain their agreement in principle, otherwise we will send the paperwork to them on your behalf when the time comes.
If they don’t agree to sign the paperwork then we cannot proceed, although to-date we have not had a lender refuse to sign.
Please also see the FAQ under “costs” in regard to potential third party costs.
There are 2 main factors involved when it comes to how long you will need to wait for the installation to take place
1) Generally we carry out these installation as a village/community project (see the FAQ’s entitled “Village / Community Installations”) and we would want to see that a reasonable number of households from your area register their interest before carrying out surveys in the area.
2) We are also lead by the local planning authorities as to when they need us to carry out work in specific areas.
Because of these 2 factors, unless we are already working within your area, we will not be able to give you a timescale as to when the installation may take place. All you can do at this stage is to register your interest and then await to hear.
Once we have completed stages 2 and 3 of the process and you have agreed to proceed to stage 3, there will be a contract to sign which will then give us 2 years to complete the installation.
Please be assured however that it is in our own interests to install your new sewage treatment plant as quickly as we can once we get to that point and currently the timescale is around 4-8 weeks.
You will get an automated response to confirm your registration. Once we have a number of home owners registered within your immediate area we will then arrange for a surveyor to visit the area and asses the viability of your property.
We do prioritise areas based on the number of registrations we have. Given that the scheme is for the benefit of the whole community/village by cleaning up rivers, ditches and waterways we do encourage everyone to share details of the scheme with their neighbours. You will be sent a flyer that you can share with your neighbours to encourage them to register.
We are likely to be at your property between 2 and 5 working days, however this can vary depending on the complexity of each installation.
The average price to change a septic tank to a sewage treatment plant is in the region of £15,000. Therefore it would be wise to upgrade now, while the scheme is available, than to wait until such a point where you are forced to do it, the scheme may have stopped and you would have to pay for this yourself.
Absolutely, up until now the majority of our business are those homeowners that have a septic tank, they endeavour to try and sell their property and it is highlighted by the surveyor that either the existing system does not meet current requirements or that it is coming to the end of its life and will need changing soon. In our experience this then either causes the sale to fall though(as the lender is not willing to provide a mortgage on the property), the timescales on moving are dramatically increased because a new sewage treatment plant has to be installed or the buyer demands a large discount to cover the costs once they have moved in.
Therefore our advice is to have it done now and avoid problems further down the line.
Please make it clear to us if you are in the process of selling your house or you intend to start the process prior to the installation being completed as this will effect various aspects of the preparation.
At the present time the scheme is focussed on replacing only Septic Tanks. You are welcome to register your sewage treatment and if at some point in the future this is something we can look at then we will be able to contact you at that point.
We would like to make it clear that this is not a “pot of money” that homeowners are “entitled” to. We have spent a significant amount of time, effort and our own money in building this scheme with the approval of the various public bodies. We see this as a scheme that will help out everyone within Norfolk to clean up our countryside and our rivers and therefore we are looking to work with communities to get these upgrades in place.
The majority of properties that we work at do not have access to a ditch. In those circumstances we would look at the alternative of installing a new field drain at the property to deal with the treated water. The surveyor will look at these options during his visit.
In reality it is being paid for by everyone that is buying a property within the nutrient neutrality areas. Within the price of that house a very small proportion will be going to fund this scheme. We see that as being a really important reason that those who are able to take advantage of the scheme do so while it is still available and then in that way that money stays within our communities.
We will work with you and you can discuss the location of the tank during the initial site survey (Stage 1), however please do keep in mind that we do have to take many factors into consideration when determining the location of the various equipment, including but not limited to location of existing septic tank, building regulations, installation guidelines, accessibility to the site and the costs of the installation.
Whilst the scheme will cover the usual costs involved in installing the tank, if you insist on a specific location that increases our costs beyond what the scheme will cover we may need to decline to proceed.
Please keep this in mind when you meet with the surveyor.
We don’t hide the fact that a substantial job such as installing a sewage treatment plant does not come without cost. However the important bit for you is that you, as the homeowner does not have to pay.
All of the work, including the site survey is covered under the costs of the scheme and we will not ask you for any payment.
There are a couple of instances where we may ask for money over and above what the scheme covers. These would be if you asked us to carry out additional work at the property or something about the job made it much more difficult than usual. This may
be because you have asked us to replace a section of foul drainage, which you knew was broken, or maybe the access to the area of the installation needed additional specialist equipment, such as a crane. These additional costs would be discussed very early on in the process, usually after we have carried out the initial survey and would be discussed with you to help you decide if you still wanted to proceed.
The other would be if we have caried out what we refer to as stage 1 and stage 2 of the process, we confirmed with you that we were happy that the installation was possible and you then confirmed in writing that you wanted to proceed. If after this point you chose to cancel the contract then you would be liable for the £3000+vat in legal costs that we had incurred up until that point. As long as you have the plant installed then there is nothing to pay.
The scheme will not cover any costs associated with third parties such as mortgage companies. i.e. if you have a mortgage then they will need to enter into the agreement. We will draw up and send the paperwork to the mortgage company on your behalf, however their relationship remains with you and not with us.
Therefore if they charge you a fee for signing the paperwork or they ask you to get a solicitor involved to answer some of their questions then you would be responsible for those costs.
We would recommend that you speak to your mortgage company early in the process,we can let you have a draft copy of the document that they would need to sign that you could forward to them to obtain their initial agreement in principle to the process.
There are 3 main costs involved in having a sewage treatment plant –
1) The plant does require an electricity supply, for an average property the electricity usage is circa £65pa
2) You will need to empty the new tank on average every 2 – 3 years, but you can continue to use your usual contractor to do this
3) Finally under the General Binding Rules (The law that covers Septic Tanks and Sewage Treatment Plants) you do have to have the new plant inspected each year which would cost around £150+vat which will rise in line with inflation
We cover this cost for the initial 2 years and then you will pay it from month 24 annually.
Yes you can but there are certain things to keep in mind
1) The scheme works on a like for like basis, if you currently have a shared tank then the new sewage treatment plant will also be shared
2) The tank will remain in the same garden that it is currently in, ie we cannot move the tanks position from one property to another.
3) The legal documents will include details of all parties that feed into the tank that is being changed. Your personal details, such as name, address and also if you have a mortgage on the property will be visible by all parties (Details such as the amount of your mortgage are not visible). If you do not agree to this then please do not register as there is no alternative.
Each household feeding into the tank needs to make a separate registration, answering the questions accordingly. This covers us from a data protection perspective and also confirms that each household has reviewed these frequently asked questions and understands the scheme.
We cannot proceed with any of the properties until all the homeowners that feed into that same existing tank have registered.
No – all homeowners that share the tank need to be involved and agree to the contract and unilateral undertaking otherwise none of the homeowners of the shared tank can benefit.
Please read through the section that deals with the 3 stages of the process, so that you understand those stages. The additional risk is born by the owner of the existing tank, as this is usually where the new tank will go.
We would recommend that you speak to us after you have registered to discuss your particular arrangement as shared tanks are usually more complicated.
We would suggest that you liaise with any neighbours that share your tank from the outset so that you all fully understand the scheme and the risks. You could consider having some form of agreement between you to cover any eventuality, but this would be between yourselves and not us. Our main contract for the installation is with the homeowner where the tank is installed.
There are many different reasons why upgrading a number of properties within a village can be advantageous to both us and you at the same time, these include
1) It keeps the amount of vehicle movements in and out of the village to a minimum as we can very often set up a small compound to keep materials and equipment in.
2) It keeps our costs down
3) It means that everyone in the village is given the opportunity to partake in the scheme as there are not always sufficient numbers for us to make multiple visits in the smaller locations.
4) The timescales over which we need to be in the village are much shorter
5) You will often find that your installation will be carried out much quicker if we have more to do.
In our experience there are some key steps in a village successfully implementing the scheme
1) Having one or two key co-ordinators to spear head the scheme ensures a structured approach – no technical knowledge or ability is needed !!
2) Decide on a location in the village where a meeting can be organised – as long as the date is discussed with us and we are available we are happy to come along and run the meeting and answer any questions. (In our experience a parish council meeting is not the ideal forum for this)
3) We can then print you some flyers that include the time, date and location of the meeting which you can distribute to all properties in the village or parish.
4) Meeting takes place, we can give a short presentation and everyone is given the opportunity to ask questions – we find people are more likely to ask questions in this sort of environment, however there will also be time at the end where they can approach us about a question that might only apply to their property.
5) This then moves on to the 3 stages as explained elsewhere.
There are 3 main stages to the scheme which I will outline below and you will see these referred to as you progress. Following registration, we will retain your details on file and when we have sufficient interest from properties in your area then we will make contact with you to start the process
You will be asked to sign an engagement letter which will be sent to you digitally by a company called Docu-sign. The letter will outline the 3 stages to you and what will happen at each of these stages.
Please be aware that if you do not sign the engagement letter then we cannot carry out the survey and the appointment you may have arranged will be cancelled.
We will arrange for a surveyor to visit your home to undertake the survey (usually lasts 30-60 minutes) to ensure that the property is suitable for the scheme.
It is important that you are there during the visit as he will decide where the new plant can go and will want to check with you that the position is acceptable, he will also need sight of your consumer unit/fuseboard within your property to ensure it meets current regulations (He will need to take a photo of this consumer unit for the survey).
The surveyor has a limited amount of time to carry out the survey and will not be able to answer any questions about the scheme itself or the type of equipment being installed, these should either be answered by calling us in the office on 01328 854549 or referring to the frequently asked questions.
Please note that the position of the tank is determined by many factors that the surveyor will consider during his visit, in addition to discussing it with you. Once the surveyor has left site then this position cannot be altered, therefore please ensure you are available to discuss this during the visit.
This involves carrying our various desktop studies by our civil engineers that are required by National England and the relevant authorities. This will prove to them that your property is eligible for the scheme
Following the completion of stage 2, we will then contact you to confirm that we are able to proceed with the installation. At this point we can answer any further questions that you may have.
At this point we will email you a further document via Docu-sign to confirm that you want to proceed. It is really important to note that if you sign to say that you wish to proceed with the scheme and then you decide that you want to withdraw, then you will be liable for our legal fees of £3000+vat.
To confirm however as long as you have the new sewage treatment plant installed there is no cost to you.
Stage 3 At this point we will pass your file over to our lawyers to draw up the relevant paperwork for you to sign. Once this is available then you will need to come into our office to sign that paperwork.
If you have a mortgage over the property then your lender will also need to sign the paperwork to agree to the scheme. We will send this off to them on your behalf, however you may need to liaise with them if they have any questions.
Once the paperwork is all in place we will come back to you and as soon as we can we will give you an idea on the timescales for the installation.
We will arrange everything in regard to the actual installation. You need to ensure that we have access to all areas of the exterior of the property from around 7am of the day that we are due to start. We will also need access to a water supply via an outdoor tap. The electrician will also need access to the inside of the property to enable the power to the plant to be connected.
If we have identified any access issues during the survey we will have discussed this with you and you may need to ensure we have clear access through to where the new sewage treatment plant is being installed. This may include moving or clearing of plants, hedges or fences. Please speak to us if you think this may be an issue.
You will not lose your water supply during the installation. We do ask you to keep to a minimum the amount of waste water you put into the foul drainage for around 48 hours whilst we install your new plant. i.e avoid loads of laundry washing and maybe have a short shower instead of a bath. Our engineers on site can let you know once everything is back to normal.
This will be discussed with you prior to the installation, however generally if the septic tank is currently in the rear of the property, then this is where the new sewage treatment plant will be installed. As a general rule of thumb we would need to be able to drive machinery the size of a small car to that area.
It should be kept in mind that we will have various vehicles and deliveries onsite and arriving throughout the installation. We do therefore ask that any vehicles that are normally parked on the driveway are maybe parked elsewhere during the period we are there. It is also essential that children and pets are accompanied at all times whilst we are onsite for their safety and ours.
Depending on your circumstances you may need to gain permission from a neighbour for access, maybe from a farmer if there is access over farm land or in some circumstances the plant can be installed elsewhere, such as at the front of the property. Please register your interest on our website and this matter can be discussed with our surveyor.
We will usually arrange to have your old septic tank emptied to coincide with when we start work. Subject to suitable access to your existing septic tank and assuming it is close to the installation position of the new sewage treatment plant, the old septic tank will be de-commissioned and you will no longer see it once the work is complete, ie the area will just become part of your garden.
This is subject to the site survey and other factors during the installation process, so please be aware that this is subject to our best endeavours.
We make it very clear to everyone that the area around the installation will be left tidy and flat, assuming of course that it was when we arrived ! We are not landscapers and the scheme does not cover the costs of relandscaping, seeding, turfing or replacing any plants, hedges or fences that needed to be removed for the installation to proceed. Please therefore be prepared that some effort by yourselves may be necessary to return your garden to how you like it.
As part of the installation, we will provide you with a sign off certificate from Building Control to confirm that everything has been carried out to the required standards. This should be kept with the important documents about your property.
Yes, in line with all sewage treatment plants, the plant will need to be emptied however The Graf system works extremely efficiently and reduces the amount of sludge that builds up within the tank. We find an average interval of around 2-3 years between emptying. Circa 200mm of sludge should be left in the new plant at all times even at the point of emptying.