Investing in and paying for water services: consultation

Introduction

Scottish Water - Performance since 2002

Scotland is enjoying the real benefits that have been delivered to drinking water quality, the environment and customer service since Scottish Water's creation in 2002.

As a result of the Scottish Government's focus on the need to improve the quality and standards of services, and the commitment shown by Scotland's water industry, drinking water quality, environmental performance and service are at some of their highest levels ever.

The achievements in the previous regulatory period were published in a report by the water industry. Since then progress has continued and at 31 March 2019, over half-way through the 2015-21 regulatory period:

• Scottish Water had invested over £2.4 billion of its £3.9 billion capital programme to improve services, protect the environment and contribute to the economy.
• Scottish Water had provided connections to more than 90,000 new homes and businesses.
• Scottish Water's service performance continued to improve, exceeding targets set for both its household and non-household customer service measures.
• Its performance against the Overall Performance Assessment (a basket of measures that look at a range of service aspects, including low pressure, leakage, drinking water quality and security of supply) also exceeded the water industry 'leading' threshold in 2018/19.
• Scottish Water invested an additional £1.8 million to detect and fix leaks in 2018/19, reducing leakage by 12 million litres each day to its lowest ever level.
• Drinking Water compliance continues to be high, with 99.92% of tests complying with strict regulatory standards in 2018/19.
• Average household charges remained £46 lower than the average in England and Wales in 2018/19.
• Since 2013, Scottish Water has increased the renewable generation capacity on the assets it owns by almost three times to 63GWh/annum, which equates to more than twice its annual energy use.

Looking to the future, it is important to ensure that the policy framework continues to support Scottish Water to build on these achievements and improve the standards of service it provides to all customers over the long term.