Pennon hosts Youth Board workshops to share plans and discuss the priorities of future customers

Colleagues from across Pennon Group’s water businesses have sat down with their future customers to understand more about their priorities and to share the companies’ future plans.

As part of Pennon’s annual insight programme, the company recently held four workshops in Truro, Exeter, Bristol and Bournemouth. The sessions are part of a series of engagement activity by Pennon’s water businesses South West Water, Bristol Water and Bournemouth Water, to share its future plans with young people and to find out their priorities.

The all-day workshops featured a short introduction to the water industry followed by a series of interactive activities, including the chance for the youngsters to give a Dragons’ Den style pitch on a water resources topic provided to them, with only 20 minutes to prepare.

Pennon teams praised the pitches, which covered subjects like how customers are charged for the water they use, smart metering and the benefits it can provide, and the future of water resources across the region. This provided valuable views on important topics for the company to better understand the priorities of its future bill payers.

The Pennon team were also impressed with how articulate the students were, and how much they understood the environmental pressures the water industry faces due to population growth and climate change.

Having explored what the future may look like for a young person in 2024, the students highlighted that a focus on sustainability is an expectation and a must-have for all businesses and industries, including the water sector.

Laura Flowerdew, Pennon Group’s Chief Customer and Digital Officer, said:

“We’re always looking to the future as outlined in our business plan from 2025-30, so it was a great to be able to discuss our upcoming plans with the next generation of customers and decision makers, but perhaps more importantly, to explore what their priorities were. Their feedback will be invaluable as we finalise our plans for the region, for the benefit of everyone.”

Pennon’s plan for 2025-30 features £2.8 billion of investment and an increase of 2,000 jobs in the region. It focuses on four key priorities: investing in water quality and resilience, tackling storm overflows, delivering for customers and addressing affordability, and achieving net zero.

The Youth Board events form part of Pennon’s ongoing commitment to young people across the region. The company has recently doubled its apprenticeship and graduate schemes with plans to recruit 1,000 people by 2030, along with offering 5,000 work placement opportunities.

NEWS CATEGORIES

LATEST NEWS

Abloy UK welcomes two new Senior Market Development Managers for Water and Energy sectors

Abloy UK has further strengthened its team with the appointment of Adam Cayless and Tom Cowling, who both join the company as Senior Market...

Veolia Water Technologies launches mobile water services to support pharmaceutical and life science companies in Europe

Veolia Water Technologies has launched its mobile water services offering to the pharmaceutical, cosmetics and life science industries across Europe. This initiative provides a...

New Remote Engine Disable/Enable on Bobcat Machine IQ

Bobcat has added a new Remote Engine Disable/Enable feature on the company’s Machine IQ telematics platform. The new feature allows customers in Europe to...

Costain increases 2025 graduate and early careers intake to match business growth

Costain, the infrastructure solutions company, is increasing its intake of early careers professionals to more than 180 places in 2025, in response to...