Scottish Labour manifesto pledge to scrap market-based water policy north of the Border

The Scottish Labour Party has signalled it would scrap the business retail market in Scotland and replace the country’s current water regulatory system with a citizen-led regime, were it to win power.

Its National Recovery Plan, which sets out Scottish Labour’s immediate priorities for the country in the wake of Covid-19, said: “Scottish Labour is committed to retaining a public sector water service and will end the creeping privatisation of water and wastewater services. This public service delivers a quality service more cost-effectively than private companies in England, despite the additional costs of managing water in Scotland. We will end the market systems of regulatory control and replace it with a Scottish Water Plan driven by citizens’ views.”

Elsewhere, the Party pledged £100 rebates for every household, arguing: "Scottish Water has built up a £531m surplus – five times higher than the water regulator promised customers when setting water charges. At a time of pressure on household incomes, some of this should be returned to customers as a £100 rebate for every household.”

It also said it would “develop a clear strategy to close the disparity gap between public supply and private supplies both in terms of resilience to climate change impacts on the availability of water and in quality of drinking water”.