# United Utilities supporting customers with no increase in average household bills - Link: https://www.directorstalkinterviews.com/united-utilities-supporting-customers-with-no-increase-in-average-household-bills/4121066372 - Published: 2022-05-26T07:42:37+01:00 - Author: Amilia Stone **United Utilities Group PLC** (LON:UU) has announced its full year results for the year ended 31 March 2022. **Delivering for the North West – Supporting customers, colleagues, communities and environment** ·    No increase in average household bills for 2022/23, despite rapidly rising inflation ·    Extensive affordability schemes providing £280m of support to over 200,000 households over AMP7   ·    Leading supporter of the Consumer Council for Water’s drive to launch a national social tariff ·    Improving river health over the next 3 years through our “Better Rivers: Better North West” plan ·    Continuous apprentice recruitment, including 30 Green Apprentices to support our climate change plans ·    On track to deliver our bold commitments to reduce carbon ·    Leading utility in The Inclusive Top 50 UK Employers List 2021/22 **£400m additional investment – Responsibly sharing outperformance for the benefit of all stakeholders** ·    Increased outperformance facilitates further responsible investment; contributing to 21.4%1 RCV growth ·    Investment beyond the AMP7 final determination increased by a further £400m, now totalling £765m2 ·    The investment will help to address new and emerging environmental standards and drive customer ODIs ·    Financial strength and balance sheet headroom to fund additional investment ·    Accelerated AMP7 base capital programme delivering operational improvements with 90% on contract **Digital transformation – Systems Thinking driving value through sustainable performance** ·    Largest annual customer ODI reward of £25m for 2021/22; ahead of guidance ·    Increasing our AMP7 customer ODI guidance by over 30% to c£200m in total ·    A sector leading company on outcome delivery as assessed in Ofwat’s Service Delivery Report for 2020/21 ·    Innovative Dynamic Network Management delivering reductions in sewer flooding and pollution events ·    Overall pollution incidents reduced by over a third since the beginning of AMP7 **Financial resilience – Strong financial performance and robust balance sheet** ·    Reported and underlying3 operating profit of £610m up 1.3% ·    Household bad debt improving to 1.8%; strong customer debtor position ·    Strong balance sheet; stable RCV gearing at 61%; A3 credit rating with Moody’s ·    Fully funded, inflation hedged pension scheme; Mar-21 valuation complete, further de-risking progressing ·    Power commodity prices over 90% hedged for 2022/23 and 67% hedged for 2023/ 24 and 2024/25 ·    Optimising government tax initiatives from investment; underlying tax credit for 2021/22 of £65m; ·    7.9% reported return on regulated equity (RoRE) for 2021/22; underlying RoRE of 7.7% ·    High inflation increases RCV although reduces earnings in the near term ·    Balance sheet to remain strong and cash metrics not impacted by indexation of index-linked debt ·    Total dividend of 43.50p, in line with AMP7 dividend policy **Key financials** | | **Year ended 31 March 2022 | Year ended 31 March 2021 | | Revenue | £1,862.7m | £1,808.0m | | Reported and underlying operating profit | £610.0m | £602.1m | | Reported earnings per share^(3) (pence) | (8.3)p | 66.5p | | Underlying earnings per share^(3,4) (pence) | 53.8p | 56.2p | | Total dividend per ordinary share (pence) | 43.50p | 43.24p | | Net regulatory capital spend | £644.5m | £616.5m | | RCV gearing^(5) | 61% | 62% | _^(1) RCV growth over AMP7 in nominal prices_ _^(2) £365m of additional investment already announced_ _^(3) Reported earnings per share includes a one-off deferred tax charge of £403m in relation to the increase in the headline rate to 25% from Apr-23_ _^(4) Underlying measures are defined in the tables_ _^(5) Regulatory capital value (RCV) gearing calculated as group net debt/United Utilities Water Limited’s shadow (adjusted for actual spend and timing difference) RCV_ > **Steve Mogford, Chief Executive Officer, said:** > “We are very conscious of our responsibility to support customers at a time when > households are seeing significant rises in the cost of living. Despite the high > levels of inflation, we expect no increase in average household water bills in > our region in the coming financial year and we are offering more financial support > to customers in need than ever before. We are a leading supporter of the Consumer > Council for Water’s drive for a national social tariff and believe the right support > should be provided to customers who struggle to pay their bill regardless of where > they live in the country. > “We take our role in the North West very seriously, and firmly believe that responsibly > sharing our successes is the right thing to do for all our stakeholders. Our improving > performance together with an environment of higher inflation is yielding a greater > level of outperformance, and so we will be investing an additional £400 million > to improve the service we provide to customers and to accelerate the delivery > of environmental outcomes. We recently published our river revival plan which > progressively reduces the impact our operations have on river health. Our four- > point strategy details how we will work with others to transform the rivers and > waterways across our region. > “The maturing of our Systems Thinking approach – which uses innovative technology > to deliver a better service for customers – continues to create value through > sustainable performance improvements. This has contributed to another strong outcome > delivery incentive (ODI) reward for the year and underpins our confidence in increasing > our total AMP7 ODI target by a third, to £200 million. Financial performance has > again been good, demonstrating resilience in a challenging environment and, together > with the sustainable improvements in our performance, is delivering value for > our stakeholders today as well as creating further value to be received in AMP8 > and beyond.” **Presentation webcast and conference call details** We will be hosting a live virtual presentation at 9.00am on Thursday 26 May 2022, which can be accessed via the following link: http://www.unitedutilitiestv.live/ The presentation slides will be available on our website shortly before the presentation commences at the following link: https://www.unitedutilities.com/corporate/investors/results-and-presentations/full- and-half-year-results/ Following conclusion of the presentation a recording of the presentation will be available from our website. Share on: