Corporate Business and Utilities

Rachel Newton

Rachel works for Scottish Water covering the whole of Scotland.

My role is managing land entry and acquisitions for Scottish Water’s capital programme across the whole of Scotland, from Shetland to Stranraer. I work closely with the project managers, engineers and designers as well as planners and environmental specialists to help to deliver up £700m of investment in Scotland’s infrastructure every year.

My job can range from being out on site meeting farmers and landowners affected by the works, negotiating access with stakeholders and valuing compensation claims to site acquisitions which may range from a few square metres of land for a small water intake site in the Western Isles to several acres of commercial land in the Central Belt for a large works. I provide and track estimates of land costs for our projects from an early stage and report to the business on the costs associated with acquisitions and claims.

A lot of the value in the service my team and I provide is in our knowledge and understanding of the relevant legislation, farming practice and valuation processes. We can highlight ways of reducing costs and delays and identify how Scottish Water’s works might affect the farmers and landowners whose land we cross and then work with designers to try to mitigate these effects early in the project where possible.

I get to meet a wide range of people all over the country and am always learning something new – it is never predictable, no day is ever the same!