By David Scott in Edinburgh
9 September 2010
Outlining his programme for government on September 8, Salmond said legislation to reform the utility would be among ten Bills to be presented during the final session of the Scottish Parliament before next May’s elections.
But there will be no legislation for a referendum on Scottish independence.Salmond said opposition parties had ‘ganged up’ to stop it. ‘So we will take our case for greater powers to the people of Scotland [in next year’s election],’ he added.
Scottish Water has been the subject of controversy over whether it should be turned into a private company. However, Salmond told MSPs that it would remain in public hands.
He said: ‘We want Scottish Water to evolve from a successful utility into a dynamic water agency. If we give Scottish Water the room to grow then we have the makings of a great Scottish company in public ownership.’
He said that with the powers to expand its activities it could generate additional revenue so that it became ‘financially neutral to the Scottish Government books’.
‘We intend to give it the power to become one of the largest generators of renewable electricity in this land,’ the first minister added.
Other Bills in the Scottish National Party government’s programme include plans to end the ‘double jeopardy’ law which prevents a person standing trial twice for the same crime; a private housing Bill to tackle ‘rogue’ landlords; changes in long lease arrangements; improvements to electoral administration; and plans to improve record-keeping across the public sector.
Scottish Labour finance spokesman Iain Gray claimed Salmond had ‘run out of ideas, run out of steam and is fast running out of time’.
9 September 2010
The public utility Scottish Water is to be transformed into a ‘dynamic’ agency with powers to become one of the country’s biggest generators of renewable electricity, First Minister Alex Salmond has announced.
Outlining his programme for government on September 8, Salmond said legislation to reform the utility would be among ten Bills to be presented during the final session of the Scottish Parliament before next May’s elections.
But there will be no legislation for a referendum on Scottish independence.Salmond said opposition parties had ‘ganged up’ to stop it. ‘So we will take our case for greater powers to the people of Scotland [in next year’s election],’ he added.
Scottish Water has been the subject of controversy over whether it should be turned into a private company. However, Salmond told MSPs that it would remain in public hands.
He said: ‘We want Scottish Water to evolve from a successful utility into a dynamic water agency. If we give Scottish Water the room to grow then we have the makings of a great Scottish company in public ownership.’
He said that with the powers to expand its activities it could generate additional revenue so that it became ‘financially neutral to the Scottish Government books’.
‘We intend to give it the power to become one of the largest generators of renewable electricity in this land,’ the first minister added.
Other Bills in the Scottish National Party government’s programme include plans to end the ‘double jeopardy’ law which prevents a person standing trial twice for the same crime; a private housing Bill to tackle ‘rogue’ landlords; changes in long lease arrangements; improvements to electoral administration; and plans to improve record-keeping across the public sector.
Scottish Labour finance spokesman Iain Gray claimed Salmond had ‘run out of ideas, run out of steam and is fast running out of time’.
