Pennon Group has unveiled a range of new investments across the region, announcing a record-level investment of £143 million in environmental improvements, water resources, and a range of customer support benefits.
The record multi-million-pound investment sits at the heart of Pennon’s continued commitment to supporting its customers through the cost of living crisis, protecting the natural environment, and building long-term resilience of water supplies in the South West.
The investment pledge follows Defra’s announcement that 100% of the classified bathing waters in the South West passed their stringent standards for the second year running, highlighting the continued improvements the company continues to make in its environmental performance, as it is delivers its largest environmental investment programme of £330 million to 2025.
With the South West remaining in drought following one of the driest periods for over 130 years, Pennon Group has also announced an additional £45 million investment in the region’s water courses, to bring new reservoirs online and shore up drinking water supplies for the future. These accelerated schemes bring the total investment in this area to £75 million.
In response to the continued cost of living crisis, Pennon is also delivering over £78 million benefits to customers, which includes a number of customer affordability schemes and a second share issuance through its unique WaterShare+ scheme next month.
As the region’s largest employer of over 3,000 people, Pennon has also announced plans to double its apprenticeship and graduate schemes to 2030 and will offer 5,000 work placements to school children over the same period.
The announcements and record-level investment were made in the company Half Year Results 2022/23.
Susan Davy, Chief Executive of Pennon Group, said:
“In the first half of this year we’ve made record levels of investment to support a step change in environmental performance and build resilience for the longer term, having experienced the hottest, driest year since records began. Today we are announcing an increase in investment in water resilience schemes of c.£45 million, bringing the total reinvestment in these initiatives to c.£75 million to repurpose ex-quarries and mines and introduce desalination units to ensure our resilience to 2050 is in place now.
“Our investments aren’t just in places and infrastructure, they’re in people and communities too. Given this cost of living crisis, at Pennon, we believe every customer should benefit from what we do.
“We are delivering over £78 million of benefits to customers, at a time when customers need it most, through a second issuance of our unique WaterShare+ scheme, with £40 million funded so far to give customers the option of a stake and a say in their water company, or money off their bill.
“We are also announcing plans to build and double our award-winning apprenticeship and graduate schemes to 2030 and will offer 5,000 work placements to school children over the same period, supporting those in our region to live local and prosper.”
2022 Bathing Water classifications
The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has announced today that 100% of the classified bathing waters in the South West have passed their stringent standards for the second year running, with 99% rated as or ‘Good’ or ‘Excellent’, compared to c.28% in 1991. With 860 miles of coastline and over 30% of England’s designated bathing waters, the South West achieved 100% bathing water quality for the first time in 2021.
Defra’s announcement shows improvement in classification for nine designated bathing beaches, including Combe Martin, where the organisation’s investment and interventions have helped achieve a ‘Good’ rating up from a ‘Poor’ rating in 2020. This has been delivered through enhanced and targeted investments in the local wastewater infrastructure, as well as wider interventions across the catchment.
Improvements were also seen at:
- Croyde Bay, North Devon – Good to Excellent status
- Gorran Haven Little Perhaver, Cornwall – Good to Excellent status
- Ladram Bay, South Devon – Good to Excellent status
- Pendower, Cornwall – Good to Excellent status
- Plymouth Hoe East, Devon – Good to Excellent status
- Porthcurnick, Cornwall – Good to Excellent status
- Portwinkle, Cornwall – Good to Excellent status
- Par Sands, Cornwall – Sufficient to Good status
- Combe Martin, North Devon – Sufficient to Good status
As the firm pledges to go further and faster, it has reduced spills from storm overflows in this year’s bathing season by 50% on last year, with the duration of those spills reducing by 75%.
Customer affordability initiatives
Amid the current cost of living crisis, the company announced in its results continued support to customers across the region with an extensive package of affordability and vulnerability measures, including specific tariffs and income maximisation schemes, supporting over 100,000 customers to date.
These initiatives include discounts to bills or a level of bill certainty to suit customers’ circumstances, helping to support Pennon’s Board pledge to address water poverty for customers by 2025. The number of customers benefitting from one or more of our social tariffs has increased by c.12%.
This includes the £10 million ‘Stop The Drop’ campaign launched this month by South West Water for customers in Cornwall, providing a financial incentive in the form of a £30 bill credit if customers reduce their usage enough to help the county’s reservoirs recharge to 30% by 31 December 2022.
As a result of these initiatives, since the start of this regulatory period c.£28 million of support has been unlocked for customers across the Group.
Customer share issuance – WaterShare+ 2
Building on the successful launch of Pennons WaterShare+ initiative in 2020, which saw one in 16 households in the region become shareholders, customers will again be able to benefit from this initiative. Through WaterShare+ customers will benefit from the value of a £13 credit in the form of a bill reduction or a share in Pennon Group. This can be taken as a one-off credit, reducing a bill payment or as a share in the Pennon Group from which dividends will be issued.
The company has announced over £78 million of benefits to customers, combining its help for low-income customers and WaterShare+ 2 scheme.
