Many of the large projects which Solutions is constructing have significant ‘third party’ issues associated with them, and Solutions adopted a highly focused approach to stakeholder engagement, particularly with those who could reduce the delay in getting projects to site.

Relationships have been established during the first two years of Q&S II with planning authorities, environmental regulators and associations representing councils, Scottish businesses and the construction industry were strengthened to help them deal more effectively with the increase in workload during the final stages of the programme.

383 planning and 359 SEPA environmental discharge consents have been applied for so far in the Programme, the vast majority of which have been agreed.

More than 200 projects required land to be purchased and in only six cases have compulsory purchase orders been sought.

The successful ramp up of delivery has also depended on the valuable support of the wider civil engineering industry in Scotland and the relationship with the Civil Engineering Contractors Association, CECA, and its members has been invaluable in enabling Solutions to deliver the programme efficiently, maximising the benefit to the nation’s economy.