Infrastructure Investment Plan 2021-22 to 2025-26: Programme pipeline update (September 2022)

Sector: Water

Programme name: Scottish Water Investment Programme

Programme description: For each regulatory period, Scottish Water is directed by Ministers to deliver improvements to customer service, drinking water and environment. During period 2021-27, focus will be on maintaining high quality customer service, replacing aging infrastructure and making progress towards achieving net-zero emissions by 2040.

Estimated total investment: £4.5 billion.

How is programme being funded: Scottish Water's investment programme is financed from charges from customers and borrowing from the Scottish Government.

Programme delivery timetable: Scottish Water will invest up to £4.5 billion during the period 2021-27.

Latest programme progress: Progress is reported on by the Delivery Assurance Group which produces quarterly reports which are published on the Scottish Government website at Water industry: Delivery Assurance Group.

Progress as shown in report for Quarter 4 2021-22, shows that delivery continued to be impacted by the changing construction market conditions, increasing timescales and costs to deliver investment. Despite these challenges, the vast majority of projects have been delivered on or ahead of target and at year end, Scottish Water had delivered £799 million of investment; the largest increase in investment levels in more than a decade.

Scottish Water continues to review the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and changes to construction market on its investment programme.

Contribution to economic development: Scottish Water is planning £4.5 billion of critical investment to 2027 supporting over 5,000 jobs directly in the civil engineering, construction and design sectors. This is approximately 20% of the market in these sectors in Scotland.

Contact for public enquiries: email: waterindustry@gov.scot