Welcome to our performance report for 2022/23
We know what our customers expect from us – a reliable supply of high-quality drinking water that represents excellent value for money – and we strive to deliver consistently high levels of service through a business that is safe, efficient and effective.
There have been times during the past year when providing that consistent supply of drinking water to each of our 2.3 million customers has been a challenge.
While we have done everything we can to meet the exacting performance targets and rigorous environmental commitments that go beyond our statutory obligations, extreme weather events have had a significant impact on our performance during the past year.
I’m sorry to all our customers who have been affected by these incidents. We have taken a huge amount of learning on board from the feedback we’ve received and are reinvigorating how we respond. This includes recruiting new positions to help in planning and response, as well as looking at how we communicate direct to you.
Although these events and their impact have dominated our workload and headlines, we must not lose sight of all the other important work that has continued alongside the response to these major weather events.
We have continued to make progress on delivering on the commitments and ambitious targets we set out in our five-year plans, as well as making great progress with some of our key engineering projects, which will deliver improved resilience across our network. We have previously committed to investing the full £483 million into our network between 2020 and 2025, and we have continued to deliver on this commitment in 2022/23.
We have extended our support for vulnerable customers and those facing financial hardship as the cost-of-living crisis continues to bite. Until the extreme weather events occurred, we had been well ahead of our target to reduce leakage, too.
At the time of writing, one of our most ambitious pipe laying projects in Hampshire was nearing completion. The £11 million, two-year project to protect the future of water supplies in Fleet involved laying 11 kilometres of new pipe.
It’s vital we plan ahead over many years to ensure we can deliver a reliable supply of drinking water to our customers, at a fair price, whilst protecting and enhancing the environment for future generations. We are the first water company to create a 25-year Environment Plan, setting out the actions we commit to taking to protect and enhance our environment now and in the future. Following a public consultation in 2022, the revised final plan will be available this summer.
We own or manage 33 Sites of Special Scientific Interest, a National Nature Reserve, two local nature reserves and numerous Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. A healthy, vibrant environment where nature can flourish is essential to protecting our valuable water resources, and our Environment team work hard to ensure all our day-to-day operations support the environment’s protection and conservation.
As custodians of the environment, we pride ourselves on a proactive partnership approach which continues to reap rewards. We work closely with farmers and landowners to improve the quality of our water at the source and to protect our rivers and chalk aquifers. We have part-funded rainwater harvesting systems for farmers, so they can store up water during wet weather, ready for when their crops and animals need it most. This helps prevent soil, nutrients and other chemicals being washed into local rivers during heavy rainfall, and eases pressure on our tap water network.
Climate change forecasts predict hotter summers and warmer, wetter winters. We expect droughts to become more frequent and more severe, so we are planning for this and increasing the resilience of our systems as a result. 2022/23 served as a reminder to us all of the growing climate change crisis and the need for us all to work together to solve the environmental and societal changes we are facing.
We remain proud of our industry-leading partnership approach to helping the most vulnerable members of our society. We are committed to helping customers who need additional support, especially during the current cost-of-living crisis. We lead the industry with our work on data sharing with councils to automatically identify and enrol more eligible customers on to our social tariff. In January, we were one of the first nine organisations to achieve the BSI’s new Inclusive Service Kitemark, in recognition of our commitment to supporting vulnerable customers.
In the coming year, we will build on the lessons learned and progress made in 2022/23 during what were very challenging times. In doing so, I am sure this will put us in a great position to deliver a strong performance during 2023/24.
Summary tables
Below you’ll find our summary tables for each group of measures providing an overview of our performance for this year.
TBC = Ofwat will review our performance against the rest of the industry and inform us of our ranking and the resulting incentive.
Outcome
Unit
2021/22 performance
2022/23 performance target
2022/23 performance
Incentive type and £
Hectares
5,986
8,530
8,289.9
2024-25 incentive only
Outcome
Unit
2021/22 performance
2022/23 target
2022/23 performance
Score out of 5
4.3
4.4
4.2
Score out of 5
4.3
4.3
4.1
Score out of 5
3.2
3.9
3.3
Score out of 5
3.8
3.8
3.3
Commitment
Unit
2021/22 Performance
2022/23 Performancwe
Responsible business commitments
Develop a future generation schools programme
Create more partnership community projects on water use and vulnerability
Support the tap water refill campaign to reduce plastic bottled water
Play an active role regionally in relation to the impact of housing growth
Improving health safety and wellbeing of our people and communities
Ensure fair pay, reward and recognition for all our employees