Chief executive’s view: Douglas Millican, Scottish Water

According to a new Which? report, Scotland’s water industry is the most trusted consumer sector.

Every day, more than 2.5 million households and businesses the length and breadth of Scotland – its mainland and numerous islands – depend on the essential services provided by Scottish Water.

We are conscious of the vital role we play as Scotland’s unique, publicly owned water company. And we recognise the trust that our customers place in us – to provide first class drinking water and exemplary care for the environment.

We were therefore delighted with the recent news that, according to a new Which? report, Scotland’s water industry is the most trusted consumer sector.

Over recent years, we have delivered year-on-year service improvement thanks to the hard work of our 3,800 employees, and we are determined to stretch further.

Our customers enjoy the benefits of one of the UK’s best value water and wastewater services.

We confirmed last week that, from April, household charges will increase by 1.6 per cent – around £6 a year for the average household. By once again limiting the rise, we continue to provide stability for customers, and some of the lowest charges anywhere in the UK – which we know matters.

Before setting our 2015-21 priorities, extensive customer feedback was gathered and then cemented in an agreement reached with the Customer Forum for water.

Customers said they expected us to build on improvements while at the same time providing value for money, stability and certainty in charge levels.

The price limits set in turn by the Water Industry Commission for Scotland mean that, by 2021, we expect further enhancements to drinking water quality and environmental performance, while ensuring that overall household charges fall further in real terms.

During this period, we are investing £1,370 for every connected property to deliver improved services. Ongoing projects include construction of a new £29 million water treatment works to serve the Oban area – one of Scotland’s most popular visitor destinations.

Work is also progressing on Glasgow’s £100 million Shieldhall Tunnel, which will improve river water quality and reduce flooding. We are also working to protect our assets from the potential impacts of climate change. Projects of this nature demonstrate how we can respond to the challenges posed by increased rainfall – making sure we have sewer systems with sufficient capacity.

We are also embedding resilience across all of our services. That’s partly achieved through increased connectivity between supply systems. For example, we are carrying out a £120 million investment to connect much of Ayrshire with Greater ­Glasgow’s water network – which will benefit more than 200,000 customers.

Another example of how we can run an increasingly efficient business is reducing our consumption of electricity, increasing the amount of renewable energy we generate and hosting private renewable investment where there is benefit for customers. In the past three years, we have doubled our installed renewable capacity, and diversified our technology to include hydro, wind, photovoltaic solar and combined heat and power.

Ultimately, everything we do is with our customers in mind and delivering the value which is rightly expected of us. We have developed new ways of giving us a broader view of our performance – such as the new Customer Experience Measure. This allows us to measure customer experience, regardless of whether people have had direct contact with us.

Such innovations help us to focus on achieving an ever-improving service with the maximum possible value. In doing so, we can earn the trust of all the customers and communities we serve.