Severn Trent has committed to give £1 million to charity and community groups helping people affected by the coronavirus outbreak.
The company said it wants the funds, comprising £500,000 from its recently established Community Fund and £500,000 of historic share forfeiture proceeds, to be available speedily for those who need assistance the most.
In a trading update the company praised its staff’s “dedication and commitment” as they worked through the pandemic to keep services operational as well as increasing communications with households to offer help to people struggling with bills.
SVT said it enacted “robust incident management and business continuity plans” to see the company through the crisis, while working closely with resilience groups and collaborating with the wider water sector.
The company said it had a robust financial liquidity position extending out to early 2022 including £200 million of funds from a debt raising project.
SVT reported being on track to qualify for £25 million of outperformance rewards for its Outcome Delivery Incentives (ODIs) for 2019/20 and £163 million for the five-year period 2015-20, which allowed the company to defer £177 million into revenue for AMP7.
SVT expected net financing costs to be broadly flat in comparison to the previous year as a result of increased levels of interest and a lower RPI.
WaterPlus – the water retail joint venture between SVT and United Utilities – is anticipated to take a hit because of the virus and, as UU announced last week, its previous recovery plan will take longer to achieve.
In its most recent financial results (to March 2019) Waterplus recorded a £1.4 million pre-tax loss. It has also been dogged by complaints with 45 per cent of all complaints attributed to it in the third quarter of 2019/20.
Ofwat and MOSL passed several code changes to assist the non-domestic water market including waiving penalties and change of premises status in acknowledgement of the huge numbers of customers that would struggle to pay water bills because of forced closures.