Quality and Standards 4: 2015-2025
The Quality and Standards 4 planning process is now underway and will consider the investment requirements for the ten year period 2015-25. This process is being undertaken by a project management team led by the Scottish Government.
This team will provide Ministers with an assessment of the investment requirements for the 2015-25 period, particularly in relation to the Government's key priorities of:
- Sustaining economic recovery and growth
- Tackling and dealing with Climate Change
- Delivering improvements to services within a constrained government budget
In particular, the planning process will take account of the following needs:
- To identify low cost and low carbon solutions must be paramount in delivering Ministers' Objectives;
- Maintaining an investment programme of no more than £500m in 2007-08 prices;
- Planning for a ten year period 2015-2025, to be delivered over two five year regulatory periods (2015-2020 and 2020-2025);
- To increase and improve customer involvement in the setting of investment priorities to deliver the levels and quality of service.
Key Dates
There are a number of key dates ahead of the next regulatory period 2015-2020 on which decisions about investment priorities will be taken. These are as follows:
| Early spring 2011 | Government formally initiates the Strategic Review of Charges 2015-20. This will start the process to establish investment requirements and set charges payable by customers |
| Early spring 2012 | Ministers issue draft investment requirements |
| Summer 2014 | Ministers issue final Objectives |
| Autumn 2014 | Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS) issues its Final Determination of Charges |
| 1 April 2015 | New regulatory period begins |
Throughout the period, extensive consultation will be undertaken with the public to agree investment priorities. Further details on specific events will be given below.