Steve Reed is leading a campaign of disinformation on Scottish water

The National

3 days ago

I'm proud to live in a country with a publicly-owned water company that is demonstrably delivering for the people who live here.
Our water is cheaper – we pay much less for our water than people in England and Wales. And our water is cleaner – 87% is judged to be either 'high' or 'good' quality by our environmental regulator, Sepa.
READ MORE: Broadcast watchdog called in over Labour's 'misleading' Scottish water claim
Any profit that Scottish Water makes off our bills is invested in making improvements to its infrastructure – rather than lining the pockets of shareholders.
The benefits of Scotland's approach were outlined this week in the Independent Water Commission's recent report into the water industry in England and Wales. It gave special mention to the way we manage our water sector – specifically highlighting the way the Scottish Government works as good practice.
The report also draws attention to our long-term vision, the ongoing flexibility in our investment programme, our approach to sharing costs across generations and our ethical-based regulation model – which ensures we deliver the best outcomes possible for the public.
But you wouldn't have heard of this if you listened to the UK Environment Secretary Steve Reed talking about it.
Instead, he has taken to the airwaves with a campaign of disinformation about Scotland, designed to undermine the idea of public ownership of water.
You might expect this from a Tory politician, but the last time I checked, this UK Government was meant to be a Labour government.
Mr Reed's repeated assertion that pollution in Scotland's rivers is worse than England is simply wrong. The independent report commissioned by his own department clearly shows that is not the case, noting that 66% of Scotland's water bodies are of good ecological status as compared with 16.1% in England.
Even allowing for differences in the timeframe for those figures, it is clear that Scotland has far higher water quality.
Much of the improvement is due to significant investment in the water industry and efforts made by Sepa to address pollution from other sources
In fact, we take the issue of pollution so seriously that we have already committed up to £500 million to further improve water quality, specifically to increase monitoring of the highest priority waters and tackle debris and spills.
While companies in Labour-run England aren't delivering for anybody except shareholders, Scottish Water has been labelled the UK's top-performing water company and as the most trusted utility in the UK according to the Customer Service Institute.
READ MORE: SNP minister calls on UK counterpart to retract 'misleading' Scottish water comments
There is much we have to be proud of when it comes to our water. There is also a lot that others can learn from the Scottish Government's approach to managing the sector.
However, we are not complacent.
Like the rest of the UK, Scotland shares pressures relating to ageing assets and climate change and we will need to do more and more to manage this.
But if we're going to make progress and deliver the best outcome for households and businesses, that has to start with an understanding of the facts.
So we'll leave Labour to explain to people in England and Wales why they can't have what people have in SNP-run Scotland – and we'll get on with ensuring that our natural resources truly benefit the people of Scotland.