Annual Integrated Report

Leading with purpose: navigating today’s challenges with tomorrow’s vision.

Introduction from our Chief Executive, Peter Simpson:

“It has been a challenging year following extreme weather, a cost of living crisis, record inflation and operating in the public eye with increasing concern over the impact of pollutions and the need to upgrade aging Victorian water and sewage infrastructure. Our historic investments in leakage, where we have again improved on last year’s industry-leading position, meant we kept water flowing, avoided a hosepipe ban and protected the environment by keeping within the amount we are licensed to safely take from rivers and watercourses.

Looking after all our customers, especially with the cost of living crisis intensifying on the back of rising inflation, was of utmost importance to us. We’ve supported a record 334,000 vulnerable customers already, achieved a specific ISO standard for our support for the most vulnerable in society, and pledged £135 million to help even more people in the year ahead. And, in achieving substantial smart meter coverage, we have helped our customers reduce their consumption, conserving water as well as saving them money.

We also managed our costs by hedging energy and made a record investment of £725 million in the region – significantly above our operating profit – which included installing a further 40 storm tanks; increasing capacity and reducing average spills to the lowest level in the industry (15 versus 29 industry average), ahead of the regulatory target.

We still have a lot more to do. We didn’t achieve all of our targets last year, largely as a result of extreme weather events. We also know more investment is needed in our infrastructure. We are working hard to create value for all of our stakeholders, as outlined further in our report.” 

Highlights of the year