PG wrote:
I am the freeholder of a house comprised of two flats. It's been that
way for many years. The two flats share the same mains supplies (gas,
electric and water), and each tenant pays for power via coin meters.

I now want the tenants to pay their own utility bills - since I don't
want to have to empty coin meters any more. To enable this, I'll need
to have an additional gas mains supply (and meter) and an additional
electric mains supply (and meter) installed by the supply companies

Do I have to ask the council before I do this?

Can't see any reason why. I recently subdivided a house into two, and
natch, the various council depts were very interested in different
aspects of this - council tax, building regs, planning permission; but I
can't recall any specifics about separating off and installing
separate utilties.

NB it will cost you plenty to do it, mind - eg I was forced to pay
United Utilities GBP 1100 to provide 1m of blue water pipe under the
pavement (I dug the internal hole, and made the hole through the house
wall 18" down, myself, thereby saving £££ more).

David