Thames Water says its met its leakage targets
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Thames Water is to increase the amount it spends on maintaining pipes and infrastructure as the company’s new management works to get the business back on track.
The company, which supplies water to 8 million people in London, said today that pre-tax profits fell 22pc to ??270m as last year’s drought and higher power costs took their toll.
David Owens, chief executive, said: “These are encouraging results across a range of key financial and operational measures, particularly given the challenges faced by the business over the last reporting year when our region faced one of the worst droughts in a hundred years, and the company’s future ownership was uncertain.”
However, Thames Water insisted that it had met its leakage targets set by regulator Ofwat, which had demanded a minimum leakage target of 213m gallons a day.
Mr Owens added: “There is still much to be done however; operating efficiency requires further improvement and we are spending less than we would like on the capital investment programme, but there are real signs of progress.”
Thames Water said that capital investment to maintain and improve Thames Water’s infrastructure rose 40.6pc to ??779m last year and that in a year’s time the company expects to be spending ??900m a year to improve its network and process facilities.
Sales increased by 2.7pc to ??1.43bn due to price increases agreed with water regulator Ofwat. Thames Water provides drinking water for 8.5m customers and manages wastewater for 13.5m.
It is now owned by Kemble Water, a consortium of institutional investors managed by Macquarie, which bought the business at the end of 2006. It was previously owned by Germany’s RWE.