This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Water industry investment
02/09/2003
Scottish Water today announcemed a £1.8 billion pounds
capital investment programme to upgrade the country's
public water infrastructure.
Environment and Rural Development Minister Ross Finnie
said:
"I welcome this announcement which is the biggest ever
water industry investment programme in Scotland.
"It will bring significant benefits to people of
Scotland by improving the quality of drinking water and
cleaning up Scotland's coastal waters and rivers."
The investment will be spread over the period 2002-2006.
To date, a total of £400 million of work has already been
undertaken on a range of projects.
Over the next two and half years Scottish Water plans to
commission 1,500 individual projects across Scotland,
including the Katrine Water Project.
This will include upgrading and, in some cases, building
440 water treatment works, 490 wastewater treatment works,
and carrying out water distribution and sewer renewal
throughout the whole of Scotland.
Scottish Water reviewed the approaches to investment
operated by the previous water authorities and concluded
that they would not deliver the capital investment
programme to the challenging efficiency targets Ministers
have set.
Consequently, Scottish Water has set up a new investment
delivery arrangement which is designed to harness private
sector expertise to secure more cost-efficient and timely
investment.
Mr Finnie, commenting on the establishment of Scottish
Water Solutions Ltd (Scottish Water's asset delivery
partnership), said:
"The establishment of this new venture will help
Scottish Water to deliver the much needed environmental and
drinking water improvements required in Scotland, and at
substantially better value for money. I welcome this
initiative from Scottish Water and its partners."
Ministers consulted on the investment priorities
required in the Scottish water industry to improve water
quality standards and achieve the environmental standards
required by EC driven legislation.
This process drew on input from the Drinking Water
Quality Regulator, the Scottish Environment Protection
Agency, the Water Industry Commissioner and Scottish
Water.
The outcome was to agree a capital investment programme
(Quality and Standards 2) from 2002 to 2006, originally
costed at £2.3 billion.
The Water Industry Commissioner advised that a merged
Scottish Water using procurement processes closer in
efficiency to that elsewhere in the UK, could deliver the
programme for 1.8 billion pounds - a saving of £500 million
to customers and the public purse.
Scottish Water's Board concluded that the methods used
by the previous authorities would not deliver the
investment within the challenging cost and time targets. As
a result, approval was sought from Ministers to establish
an Asset Delivery Partnership (ADP) which would use 'state
of the art' expertise to secure more efficient and timely
delivery of capital investment.
Scottish Water has reached agreement with its
prospective partners. The two consortia partners are
Stirling Water - comprising Thames Water, Kellogg Brown
& Root, Alfred McAlpine, and MJ Gleeson - and UUGM -
comprising United Utilities, Galliford Try and Morgan
Est.
The process of selecting its partners complied with
relevant EU rules relating to such procurement. Scottish
Water will remain solely responsible to Ministers for
achievement of delivery of the capital investment
programme. The two private sector consortia involved will
bring substantial private sector expertise to that
process.
As well as improving Scotland's water and wastewater
networks, investment in the water industry supports an
estimated 5000-8000 construction jobs throughout
Scotland.