UNITED Utilities chief executive Philip Green insists the company is offering its customers value for money as it seeks to increase household bills from 2010.
Warrington-based United said earlier this year it was proposing to raise average bills by 2% above inflation for the five years from 2010 to fund a £4bn investment plan.
The company will next year look at those figures again and put in a final proposal to regulator Ofwat, which will make its decision in November, 2009.
Mr Green said that did not necessarily mean the figures would be revised upwards, but told LDP Business: “If you do a draft in August and then another one a few months later, the numbers may not come out the same because circumstances can change. People get all the services they get from us for around £1 a day. If you buy a bottle of water, that can cost you around 60-70p, so in comparison I think we offer excellent value for money.”
United, which provides water and sewerage services to households and businesses in North West England, yesterday reported a 6% rise in first-half underlying profits and sounded an upbeat note about its prospects for the rest of the year.
It said underlying operating profit in the six months to September 30 increased to £368.6m from £347.8m a year earlier. The consensus market forecast was about £370m.
The group said it was reducing its interim dividend by 30% to 10.64 pence per share, as outlined in its first-half results last year and following the sale of its electricity operation and a £1.5bn return to shareholders.
Mr Green added: “I am pleased to report another good set of results, in what is a challenging economic climate. We continue to make good progress on our regulatory capital programme and invested £353m in our infrastructure during the first half of the year.
“Our strategy to focus on our core skills has helped deliver operational performance improvements.
“Customer satisfaction is now at its highest level for many years, and we are on course to meet our regulatory leakage target for the third consecutive year. The group benefits from a robust financing position, and we have headroom to cover our projected financing needs into 2010.”
tonymcdonough
