Thames Water said on Monday that it swung to a profit in the first half even as leaks increased.
In the first six months of the year, the company swung to a profit after tax of £398m from a loss of £581m in the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 3% to £1.1bn, largely reflecting higher tariffs.
Thames Water hailed “steady progress” on its eight-year turnaround, with organisational changes starting to deliver improvements.
Chief executive officer Sarah Bentley said: “The difficult external environment has increased the challenge of our turnaround. Notwithstanding this, we’ve continued to make progress in the last six months. We’re embedding organisational changes, including the move to a regional operating model and insourcing the management of our water network, which are bringing us closer to customer and environmental needs.
“We’ve also made progress improving some of our performance metrics with a 43% reduction in customers complaints, as well as reductions in total pollutions and sewer flooding incidents. That said, there’s still a long way to go, and the recent drought affected progress on water metrics following a spike in leakage caused by exceptional dry ground conditions.”
