Annual Consultative Meeting
Thank you!
Thanks to all our customers and stakeholders who attended our Annual Consultative Meeting both in person and virtually.
The meeting was held at Aberdeen Science Centre in the heart of the Granite City. Our Chief Executive, Alex Plant, and Chair, Deirdre Michie, talked about how we are performing. They told how our overall performance for 2023/24 held up well despite significant external challenges, and how we continued to deliver excellence in terms of water quality performance of 99.92% and we ended the financial year within target in most of our key areas.
They told how we delivered record investment – topping the £1 billion mark for the first time –targeted on upgrading and replacing assets across Scotland – all vital to enabling our customers to go about their daily lives and to protecting and enhancing our precious natural environment.
They also talked about the challenges we face – with our rapidly changing climate is one of the biggest. Unpredictable weather patterns are making it harder to deliver the quality of water and the waste water services our customers expect – and that we strive to deliver. Our ageing assets are also a challenge – and they told how we need ongoing increased investment to ensure they work as they should, not just now but to ensure generations to follow have access to the best water and waste water services possible.
The senior leaders told the meeting that as a publicly owned, independently regulated and commercially-run company, we understand the vital role Scottish Water plays in ensuring a sustainable future for Scotland. They talked about how we remain on track to meet our goal of Net Zero Emissions by 2040.
Joined by other members of our Executive Leadership Team they took part in a Q and A with attendees at the centre and those who submitted questions online during a live stream. Topics included what we are doing to continue to clean up our water bodies, how we plan to work closer with communities to deliver net zero and a update on new and more innovative projects we are doing to better manage surface water. We were also asked if Scottish Water was a good place to start a career and why and who decides where we invest.
Ahead of the ACM pupils from nearby Hanover Street Primary School were given a talk about how precious water is and were also given the chance to ask our CE and Chair questions – these included them asking how we get water from reservoirs to taps and what happens when the wrong things go down the loo (they all knew to only flush the 3Ps!).

Children form Hanover Street Primary school

Alex Plant and Deirdre Michie joined children at Hanover Street Primary school to answer questions
All answers submitted ahead of during the event were answered either at the meeting or via email. Thanks for all the questions – it is YOUR water, YOUR life – we love hearing YOUR views. As owners of Scottish Water we strive to listen to our customers views and use these to help us shape priorities to best serve communities across Scotland.
You can watch the meeting here: Annual Consultative Meeting 2024