We asked, you said, we did

The consultation on Scottish Water’s draft Long-Term Strategy was open from Tuesday 4 February until Sunday 23rd March asking respondents about the challenges, outcomes and steps detailed in the document, to what level they agreed with these and how enabled respondents felt they were able to support the overall Long-Term Strategy.  The consultation was promoted in local and national newspapers and social media throughout the duration of the consultation.  

We received 147 responses to the consultation, 119 from individual respondents across Scotland and 28 from organisations across a range of sectors including sector stakeholders, local authorities, environmental groups, academia and charities.  

• 97% of respondents understood the challenges outlined in our Long-Term Strategy. 82% agreed that these challenges were right for us to focus on whilst 8% disagreed, highlighting concerns around how the Long-Term Strategy details future population growth within Scotland and the need for partnership working improvements. 10% of respondents chose neither agree nor disagree, feeling that the focus should be on the current challenges we face at present.  

• 82% of respondents agreed with the outcomes the Long-Term Strategy sets out to achieve, highlighting the need for partnership working across Scotland to help achieve these. 12% of respondents chose to neither agree nor disagree with the outcomes, whilst 6% disagreed, both suggesting more investment is required into flood defense.   

• We asked respondents about the steps we plan to take to achieve the outcomes in our Long-Term Strategy. 72% of respondents agreed with these steps, with 10% disagreeing with concerns about the potential increase in customer charges. 18% neither agreed nor disagreed with the steps identified.    

• Overall, 83% of respondents were supportive of the Long-Term Strategy and felt it was easy to understand. Respondents felt that the Long-Term Strategy addressed the key concerns that we will face in the future and how Scottish Water is planning to mitigate these challenges, but would also welcome assurance around value for money for the customer.   

• Respondents told us that they are proud of the water quality in Scotland and that it should be valued by users, therefore we have revised the first Long-Term Outcome to better reflect this pride and value, evolving it from Scotland’s tap water remains a source of national pride TO Scotland’s tap water remains a source of national pride and is valued as a precious resource.  

• Respondents wanted better clarity on what types of flooding we were responsible for and are within our power to do something about. We have clarified wording throughout the strategy to specify ‘sewer flooding’. We also updated the second Long-Term Outcome to clarify that we will protect communities from sewer flooding, evolving it from The quality of our rivers and seas has improved, and our communities are protected from flooding, through collaboration with others TO The quality of our rivers and seas has improved, and our communities are protected from sewer flooding, through collaboration with others.   

• Respondents were interested in how Scottish Water will measure the progress made against our Long-Term Strategy over the 25-year period. We have included more information to explain how we will track and report on our progress through the Strategic Review of Charges, as well as an infographic to show the timeline of how each Strategic Review of Charges period (as currently projected) will contribute to making progress towards our outcomes up to 2050.   

• Respondents told us that the Long-Term Strategy Steps chapter felt confusing, and that the steps felt like they were laid out in a sequential way. We have revised this, with ‘steps’ now being renamed as ‘approaches’ to alleviate any confusion and emphasize that these are to be done in tandem with one another.  

• Respondents felt they would benefit from further information on how they could become responsible water citizens and play a part as our customers in contributing to our key approach (formerly ‘step’) of Reducing demand on our services and assets. We have updated related sections of the strategy to include further reading links to customer-friendly guidance about how to reduce personal water usage.  

• Respondents highlighted the need for strong partnership working across Scotland in order to meet the Long-Term Outcomes. We have expanded our collaboration and partnership section, explaining the supply chain of partners within Scottish Water and how we are implementing a more advanced form of partnering for the next Strategic Review of Charge period.  

• Respondents wanted to understand more about our work and remit within the housing sector, and what influence we could bring to those partnerships to support sustainable growth, as relating to our third Long-Term Outcome Scottish Water has played a key role in enabling Scotland’s sustainable economic and housing growth. To support this, we have included more information throughout the strategy about how we utilise a ‘place-based approach’ for communities, including an additional case study, detailing Scottish Water’s involvement in installation of sustainable drainage within a new housing development. We have also expanded the ‘Our Promise to Customers’ section, highlighting how we consider urban and rural customer requirements.   

We would like to thank everyone who responded to the consultation and helped to shape our Long-Term Strategy. The final version of our Long-Term Strategy, ‘Our Sustainable Future Together’, is available here. This document will inform the development of the Strategic Review of Charges 2027-33 Business Plan that is due to be published in 2026.