Express & Star

Annual profits rise for Severn Trent

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Pre-tax profits for water company Severn Trent were up despite a fall in turnover due to a regulated price decrease for 2015-2016.

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Group turnover fell 0.8% to £1.78 billion with profit up 0.4% at £524 million.

It said that its customers have again got the lowest water bills in Britain with on average customers paying less than £1 a day for their water services at £329 Customer complaints were also down.

Chief executive of the Coventry-headquartered group Liv Garfield said: "We've worked really hard to embed customers at the heart of our business and I think that is reflected in the reduction of customer complaints, which are down 28 per cent year-on-year. We're also delighted to have the lowest water bills in Britain again with customers paying on average less than £1 a day for their clean and waste water services.

"We've also more than doubled the number of vulnerable customers we support through a variety of new initiatives and we've made improvements in areas such as sewer flooding which is down 31 per cent.

"We know there is still more to do to make sure we're consistently providing a great service to all of our customers every day, but we're pleased with this promising start to our new five-year plan."

In February Severn Trent confirmed that its average combined bills would remain the lowest in the industry for the next five years. The company also pledged to spend around £1,400 per household or business from 2015 to 2020 to further improve services such as fixing leaks more quickly, reducing sewer flooding and improving the quality of rivers and the environment.