Our Sustainable Future Together

Our Long-Term Strategy: Ensuring a Sustainable Future for Scotland's Water

At Scottish Water, our commitment to delivering high-quality water and waste water services is unwavering. As we look to the future, we recognise the need to adapt and evolve to meet the expectations of our customers, communities, and stakeholders. 

Our Long-Term Strategy is a comprehensive plan designed to ensure that Scotland's water and waste water services remain sustainable, resilient, and affordable for generations to come.

What is the Long-Term Strategy?

It’s a blueprint that builds on the foundation of our three Strategic Ambitions: Service Excellence, Beyond Net Zero, and Great Value and Financial Sustainability. 

This strategy goes further, outlining our vision for the next 25 years and the steps we will take to achieve it. It’s a promise to our customers that we will continue working hard to improve their lives and help Scotland flourish, no matter the weather.

Why Do We Need It?

The Long-Term Strategy is essential for several reasons:

• Sustainability: Ensuring that our water and wastewater services can meet the needs of future generations without compromising the environment.
• Resilience: Adapting to the challenges posed by climate change, population growth, and ageing infrastructure.
• Affordability: Providing high-quality services that offer value for money to our customers

The Challenges We Face

As we implement our Long-Term Strategy, we know there are significant challenges that lie ahead:

• The Climate Crisis: Extreme weather events, including heatwaves, droughts, storms, and floods, are becoming more frequent and severe. These events put increasing pressure on our water and wastewater systems
• Population Change: Scotland's growing and shifting population creates new demands on our network. The increase in single-person households further adds to this pressure
• Ageing Assets: Many of our assets have been in use for over a century. While they have served Scotland well, they now require upgrades or replacements to meet modern demands and improve environmental conditions

Our Long-Term Outcomes

To address these challenges, we’ve prioritised three Long-Term Outcomes:

• Scotland’s tap water remains a source of national pride and is valued as a precious resource. 
• The quality of our rivers and seas has improved, and our communities are protected from sewer flooding, through collaboration with others. 
• Scottish Water has played a key role in enabling Scotland’s sustainable and economic housing growth

Our Key Approaches

To achieve these outcomes, we will focus on three key approaches:

• Collaborate and lead partnerships with public, private and third-sector organisations, and with customers and communities, undertaking activities such as contributing to a natural environment that is resilient to climate change and supports water resources
• Transform and drive efficiency, reducing costs in the way we work through research, innovation and technology
• Reduce demand on our services and assets, by reducing demand for tap water and managing rainwater on the surface 

Our Long-Term Strategy is a roadmap for a flourishing Scotland, ensuring that our water and waste water services continue to meet the needs of our customers and the environment. Together, we can build a sustainable future.