United Utilities backs financial outlook despite hit from storms
The firm said high rainfall would soak up £25 million out of incentive payments it will receive for the financial year.
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Your support makes all the difference.North West water supplier United Utilities said that its performance had been knocked off course by a series of storms over the past year, but said its financial outlook remains unchanged.
The business said that the exceptionally high rainfall would take a £25 million chunk out of the amount of incentive payments that it will receive for the financial year.
It now expects to get around £40 million from the outcome delivery incentives (ODI) – a system managed by regulator Ofwat to reward companies for providing good service to customers.
“Annual rainfall in 2023 was exceptionally high across the North West, with parts of our region experiencing rainfall up to 50% higher than 2022 and up to 33% higher than the long run average,” the business said.
“Since the start of 2023, there have been 14 named storms, of which nine have occurred since the end of September.”
Yet the business said that despite this hit, it was making “no material changes” to its financial guidance for the 12 months to the end of March.
Separately, fellow water company Severn Trent said that it is “confident” that it will manage to get the top four-star rating in the Environment Agency’s environmental performance assessment. That means that it has had “zero serious pollution incidents in the year”.
The company said that it expects its ODI rewards to be at least £50 million “despite having experienced 10 named storms since September, contributing to the last six months of 2023 being the third wettest for England on record”.