Water company United Utilities has used its financial results to insist it takes its role in protecting the environment 鈥渧ery seriously鈥.
The Warrington-based firm, which provides water services around the North West, has released its final results for year ending March 31 in which its operating profit rose 9% to 拢480.2m.
The results have come just a day after United Utilities was heavily criticised for releasing millions of litres of raw sewage into Windermere in the Lake District. The situation was labelled a 鈥渟candal鈥 by opposition politicians, while Downing Street said it was 鈥渃ompletely unacceptable鈥 and the Environment Agency had the power to launch a criminal prosecution if necessary.
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United Utilities said on Wednesday that the spill was caused by an unexpected fault on the third party telecoms cable network in the area, 鈥渨hich United Utilities was not notified about and which affected both the primary system and United Utilities鈥 backup鈥.
But the company鈥檚 full-year results prominently highlight the work it is doing to improve its environmental performance, saying it was bringing forward around 拢400m of investment in its systems to reduce spills at more than 150 storm overflows. The group added it was moving to 鈥渁ccelerate environmental schemes in communities such as Windermere, where we are fast-tracking investment to drive improvements earlier鈥.
Chief executive Louise Beardmore said: 鈥淲e take our role in protecting the environment very seriously; our ambitious business plan would see us investing more than ever before to improve services across the five counties of the North West. This would deliver a genuine step-change in infrastructure for the benefit of customers and the environment, and support 30,000 jobs.鈥
In the results, United Utilies announced revenues of 拢1.95bn, an 8% increase on last year鈥檚 figure. It said it had been anked as the 海角视频鈥檚 top water and sewerage company and had hit targets for fixing leaks for the 18th year.
