Confusion surrounds Scottish Water work

Confusion over the roll-out of Scottish Water’s (SW) £2.1bn Quality & Standards (Q&S) III investment programme has led to fears that the client is on the verge of retendering the contracts to deliver its civils works packages.

SW’s civils work under Q&S II is being delivered by Scottish Water Solutions – made up of
two consortia: UUGM (United Utilities, Galliford Try and Morgan Est) and Stirling Water (Gleeson, KBR and Alfred McAlpine).

However, sign-off of Scottish Water Solutions’ Q&S III programme should have been made by now in time for work to commence on 1 April.

Sources have told CJ that although SW’s contractors had no guarantee they would be automatically awarded works for the new investment period, "they had naturally assumed they would get the works".

"If they do retender these contracts – which is a possibility – this is really going to eat into the delivery programme," added the insider.

The speculation has been fuelled after the resignation last week of SW’s chair Alan Alexander following a meeting with Ross Finnie, the minister for environmental and rural development.

Finnie raised concerns that SW’s plan for 2006 to 2010 fell short of his requirements and has now asked the organisation to submit a new version.

It is this request that is believed to have caused SW to consider a major internal reorganisation and a change of suppliers to deliver a reduced programme of investment of just £2.1bn over the next five years; SW had wanted to spend £3.4bn, but the Water Industry Commission overruled its request.

A SW spokeswoman, who confirmed that sign-off had still not been made, was unable to go into details of what changes might take place. "We are still in discussions over our delivery plan, so we can’t comment," she added.

However, she denied that there would be any material effect on workloads as there was £100m in early work, which has to be worked up to design stage, and also £287m in works carried over from the Q&S II programme.

In a statement, Civil Eng-ineering Contractors’ Association (Scotland) chief executive Alan Watt said the group is "increasingly concerned that Scottish Water Solutions had not been signed off to deliver Q&S III".