Scotland minority government has agreed to review the structure and operations of Scottish Water but only within a remit which would keep the utility within the public sector.

Scottish Water currently receives £182 million a year from the Government's budget and there has been persistent speculation in the parliament's corridors that Finance Minister John Swinney would welcome a change which would enable it to be moved from the public books despite the SNP pledge in last year's election to make no change. 

However, after a Scottish Conservatives initiated debate on February 21st ,in which they proposed a thoroughgoing review assessing all potential  models for change, the SNP and Labour combined to successfully substitute for that a commitment with no specific time-frame to keep under review the structure and operations of Scottish Water and the regulatory arrangements and alternative public sector models.

Conservatives Finance spokesman Derek Brownlee said: "We think that mutualisation on the model of Welsh Water which works well and benefits the taxpayer would be a sensible approach to take in Scotland."

But Infrastructure Minister Stewart Stevenson said: "mutualisation is a chimera. Whilst we should keep the structure and financing of all public services under review that does not mean taking irrevocable steps towards the sands of mutualisation."

Source : New Civil Engineer (NCE)