Thames Water delivers almost £400m profit as leaks increase

Thames Water has posted an almost £400 million profit for the past six months despite a jump in leaks amid hot summer weather.

The utilities giant said it showed “good progress” in its recent turnaround programme following a series of operational changes.

The firm revealed on Monday that pre-tax profits leapt to £398 million for the six months to September 30, swinging from a pre-tax loss £581 million over the same period last year.

It said gains on financial instruments help to boost profitability, offsetting the impact of high inflation.

Thames Water said it witnessed an “exceptionally high level of operational incidents resulting from drought” over the period, after hot summer weather which resulted in hosepipe bans.

It revealed that it saw “deterioration” in water metrics, such as leakage and supply interruption, as a result of the drought conditions across parts of the UK.

Nevertheless, the company reported a 43% reduction in complaints and 29% fall in backlogs for the period.

Thames Water said that revenues increased by 3% to £1.1 billion for the half-year, driven by increases to its tariffs.

Sarah Bentley, chief executive officer of Thames Water, 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.

“In this tough macro environment, we’ve also not been immune to high inflation, particularly the surge in energy costs.

“However, we’ve still delivered solid financial results and continued to ramp up the investment in our network to create a better future for our customers, communities and the environment.”