Scottish Water has delivered lower bills and better services for households, businesses, schools and hospitals as well as superior environmental benefits for communities. The Water Industry Commission for Scotland has developed a regulatory framework in Scotland that has distinguished itself from the rest of the UK, indeed from the rest of the world, in terms of innovation, process and spirit.
The experience of the Scottish water industry in the last two decades shows what can be achieved when there has been agency, or responsibility, in Scotland for decisions in every area of the industry: ownership, operational decision-making and regulation. The outcome has been the development of an approach that fitted Scotland’s political wishes rather than the preferences adopted in England. Whereas the regional water companies south of the border were privatised in 1989, in Scotland the industry remained in public ownership, and moved into the hands of the newly devolved administration after 1999.
By historical accident, the organisation, governance and operation of the water industry in Scotland since 2002 has been almost entirely free from Westminster control or even influence. Had things turned out differently, Scottish Water could easily have been privatised. Whether in private or public hands, it might have fallen under a GB-wide framework of regulation. But the Scottish Government, Scottish Water, its regulator WICS, and the other stakeholders have been able to pursue their courses of action within a political context indistinguishable from that which would have occurred had the country become fully independent.