Heavy losses on financial instruments and overseas investments hit Severn Trent's reported results, but a stable performance from the core UK water utility meant underlying pre-tax profits only slipped from £288m to £275m, allowing Severn to announce a 63p special dividend and increase capital investment by £150m.
Severn Trent Water saw a 2 per cent fall in water usage during the 12-month period but still managed to increase revenues by 4.9 per cent to £1.46bn after pushing through a 5.2 per cent regulatory price increase in line with inflation. The water utility spent £474m in capital investments and chief executive Tony Wray said that a further £570m-£590m will be spent in the coming year. Debt collection is still improving, with bad debts 9.8 per cent lower at £30.3m.