Scotland’s publicly owned water and waste water provider has published its interim annual report, covering the first six months of the financial year, from 1 April to 30 September 2024.
In it, the water company highlights how the organisation is on track to become Net Zero by 2040 and is looking to embrace new approaches that deliver lower whole-life cost, lower carbon and that bring wider social and environmental benefits including more nature-based solutions.
The organisation says it is also making good progress in reducing leakage, improving environmental performance and delivering key projects to help communities across Scotland flourish.
Chief Executive Alex Plant said:
“We have made a very good start to the year, improving performance in key areas such as leakage and environmental performance and stepping up the delivery of our investment programme.
“Whilst the water sector faces challenges, our model in Scotland is working well, delivering good outcomes for customers and the environment, maintaining service quality today and building a viable platform for the future.”
Writing in Scottish Water’s interim annual report, Mr Plant, said the organisation was committed to looking at new bolder and innovative ways of working to deliver cost and sustainable effective solutions while ensuring customers get the best value for money.
He also highlighted ongoing challenges which the utility is facing, including changes to the climate and aging assets. He also told how everyone has a part to play in safeguarding Scotland’s water supply by using less and by doing their bit to protect assets such as sewers to prevent pollution and flooding.
Mr Plant said: “We know our customers have high expectations of us, including high-quality drinking water, first-class customer service and the protection and enhancement of the natural environment.
“We also know they need us to do this efficiently so we can keep bills as low as possible. At this mid-year point we are in the green in most of our performance areas, helped by more benign weather than in recent years.
“But we know and are prepared for the colder winter months and the general increased likelihood of storms and extreme weather which affects our assets, many of which were not designed to cope with today’s weather and which are ageing and coming to the end of their intended lifespan.
“As we had forecast, repair costs continue to rise – compared with the same six-month period last year, we have already seen a 15% increase, up from £139 million to £161 million. Sustained investment to replace assets that are at or beyond the end of their useful lives will be vital to ensuring we can maintain service standards and create the right conditions to meet future challenges too.
“As we look ahead, despite the significant headwinds facing us, I feel we are well positioned to drive performance, demonstrate efficiency, deliver our investment plans, and protect and enhance the environment.
“We are fortunate at Scottish Water to have customers who trust us, a government which is proud of us, regulators who want to work with us and partners who want to help us transform. This is hugely valuable and provides the basis for us driving ourselves to be bolder, more innovative, quicker in our effective decision-making and ensuring we can make the case for the investment we will need in the future.”
Scottish Water is responsible for 1,838 waste water treatments works, 229 water treatment works, more than 64,000 miles of water and sewer pipes and supplies 2.64 million households. It employs more than 4,600 staff and work with hundreds of delivery and supply partners, most based in Scotland.
