united-utilities-annual-report-2015

UNITED UTILITIES GROUP PLC ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 2015Stock Code: UU.unitedutilities.comKey achievements to date include:• We were the most improved waterand wastewater company asmeasured under Ofwat’s three-yearSIM assessment from 2011/12 to2013/14 (the chart on the previouspage shows how we have movedfrom just above the worst performerto just below the best performer).As well as benefiting customers, thisimproved performance also resultedin us avoiding a revenue penalty ofup to c£80 million in Ofwat’s finaldetermination;• Customer complaints reduced byapproximately 75 per cent over the2010-15 period;• Complaints warranting investigationby the Consumer Council for Water(CCW) reduced from 63 in 2010/11to zero in 2012/13 and 2013/14and two in 2014/15;• We are consistently third behindonly John Lewis and Marks &Spencer on the customer servicebrand tracker measure out of 10leading service providers in theNorth West;• Awarded ‘Best Utility’ in the Top50 Contact Centre Awards andreceived the ‘Service to the WaterIndustry’ award presented by theHouse Builders Federation; and• We are one of the leading waterretailers in Scotland despite onlyentering the market in 2012/13.Other operational improvementsWe have been working hard to improveour performance in achieving statutorycompliance and on-time delivery ofschemes contributing to water qualityand environmental improvement.Highlights include:• Delivered stable asset serviceabilityperformance or better on all fourwater and wastewater measures for2013/14 and 2014/15, avoiding apotential serviceability penalty oftens of millions of pounds;• Upper quartile sector performanceon Ofwat’s annual key performanceindicators and on the EnvironmentAgency’s assessment of water andwastewater companies 2013/14;• Met or outperformed annualleakage targets in each of the lastnine years;• Efficiency improvements indelivering our capital programmeallowed us to reinvest over£200 million of savings intoprojects which improve servicesto customers or benefit theenvironment; and• Sustainable operating costefficiencies have helped us toexceed our outperformance targetof £50 million over 2010–15 againstour allowed operating costs. Thiswas in addition to efficiency targetsset by Ofwat of approximately £150million over the five years.Financing outperformanceOur treasury function has continuedto deliver a good performance, raisingdebt at better rates than allowed bythe regulator, and we exceeded ourfinancing outperformance target of£300 million across the 2010–15period.Overall, we are pleased with thesignificant progress we have made overthe last five years, although we knowthat we still have plenty more to do.Shareholder returnsOver the 2010-15 period, we havedelivered a strong total shareholderreturn (TSR) of 115 per cent,outperforming the market. A longerterm view of our TSR relative to theFTSE 100 is shown on page 100.Efficiency improvementsin delivering our capitalprogramme allowedus to reinvest over£200 million of savingsinto projects whichimprove services tocustomers or benefitthe environmentSHAREHOLDER INFORMATION FINANCIAL STATEMENTS GOVERNANCE STRATEGIC REPORT31