'No case' to make Scottish Water mutual

THE Scottish Government said today it did not accept the case for mutualising the country's water authority.

The move would allow Scottish Water to borrow from financial institutions.

A review is to be carried out into the future status of Scottish Water, but infrastructure minister Stewart Stevenson said he was not intending to head towards mutualisation – something both the Tories and the Liberal Democrats have called for.

Mr Stevenson said: "I'm happy to review the status of Scottish Water because I'm confident the review will tell us we're heading in the right direction."

He insisted that ministers' support for the current set up was not the result of political ideology.

"We don't believe in the current model as a matter of dogma," he said. "We believe in the current model because it actually works."