Our Performance Update 2015/2016

Transcription

1 Our Performance Update 2015/2016

2 Your water. Our report. Hello. Thanks for taking the time to take a look at Our Performance Update for 2015/16. As your local water supplier, we manage the water in your area every single day treating it and supplying over 900 million litres of it so we can ensure that 3.6 million people have high quality drinking water when they need it. We understand that we provide an essential service to households and businesses across our region. It is what drives our ambition to be your trusted, community-focused water company. But we face a very real challenge to our ability to continue to meet demand in the longer term. We supply water to one of the fastest-growing, most economically active regions in the country. While demand is going up, the amount of available water is going down. 13 key commitments In 2014 we submitted a five-year Business Plan to our regulator which set out a path to meeting this challenge. In developing our Business Plan we got the thoughts of our customers and stakeholders through face-to-face community meetings, online panels and our Let s Talk Water Campaign. But we wanted to go one step further. That s why we ve broken down our performance by our individual communities. We want our customers to be clear about how we re performing where they live and how this measures up against the company average and against other communities in our supply area. Listening and learning We want to be completely open with our customers and stakeholders about our performance. We want them to have trust in our service and encourage them to provide constant feedback about how we re performing against our commitments. Thanks again for taking the time to read this booklet. Best wishes, Simon Cocks Chief Executive Officer Our vision is to be the leading community focused water company. As a result of what our customers told us, we set out 13 key commitments. These commitments ensure that we have enough water to meet demand while leaving enough water in the environment, minimising disruption to supply, providing high quality water and offering our customers a value-for-money service. This report sets out how we re performing against each of these 13 commitments at a company level. As a result of what our customers told us, we set out 13 key commitments 2

3 About us We provide clean water to 3.6 million customers across the South East. That s a lot of customers and a big responsibility, which we take extremely seriously. We are committed to being open and honest about our performance at both a company and community level. We are working hard to reduce our impact on the environment, whilst improving the levels of service our customers receive at the same time. And where customers find themselves in vulnerable circumstances, we ll always make support a real priority. How we have performed this year How have we done this year at a company and community level? This report tells you more but here are some key facts at a glance This year we have reduced the amount of water we take from the environment by 6.7 million litres Supported 38,000 households on low incomes through our Low Income Fixed Tariff (LIFT) Invested over 100 million into our assets and network. Where each pound of our customers bills is spent: 7p 10p 10p 17p 26p 30p Our shareholders Dividends Our bondholders Interest paid on debt financing Local and central government Corporation tax, business rates, abstraction charges, employer s national insurance, Climate Change Levy and streetworks permits Our people Wages, salaries and pensions Our suppliers for operating services Operational cost of suppliers services Our suppliers for assets Investment in our assets Figures are based on our statutory financial statements for the year ended 31 March In 2015 we carried out over 170,000 tests on water leaving water treatment works, at reservoirs and at customers taps as part of our regulatory monitoring programme. We also carried out over 400,000 tests on operational samples. Our overall compliance performance in 2015, as regulated by the Drinking Water Inspectorate ( DWI ), was percent ( % ). To homes, schools and businesses Water tower Chalk aquifer Water treatment works We operate 98 water treatment works to ensure that our water is of the highest quality. We distribute our water through a network of over 16,500km of mains. We supply on average 900 million litres of water a day to over 3.6 million people, serving 1.5 million homes and businesses. 3

4 Our communities The area we supply is made up of eight water resource zones which we call communities. Each community is named after a local river to strengthen the link between our water sources and the area they serve. We manage our business at a local level to enable us to engage with our customers in a meaningful way and tailor our future plans. Misbourne 2.8 million invested in renewing pipework 29,000 raised at the 32nd annual Ricky Road Run Three community groups supported with 5,000 worth of funding I believe that by taking decisions at a community level we are better able to meet the needs of our communities and provide better outcomes for our customers. Drew Ritchie Managing Director of Wholesale Operations Wey 1.5 million spent on improving the performance of our network 10,800 donated to support local community projects Supported the British Disabled Water Ski and Wakeboard Association at Heron Lake Colne 4million invested in making our network more resilient 4,600 donated to support local community projects 6,000 students visited our award-winning education centre in Bushey Hemel Hempstead Rickmansworth Woking Luton St Albans Wembley Watford Stevenage Saffron Walden Harlow Dover Folkestone Harwich Clacton-on-Sea 4 Guildford

5 Lee 6 million invested in infrastructure Children In Need call centre 1,700 calls answered by our team 13,000 free Home Water Efficiency Checks carried out Stort 34km of pipework renewed to strengthen our network Partnership with a local school through BITC Business Class 4,860 donated to support local community projects Brett Our strongest performing network of our eight communities Partnership with a local school through BITC Business Class 2,360 donated to the St Clare Hospice Saffron Walden Hemel Hempstead Rickmansworth Luton St Albans Wembley Watford Stevenage Harlow Dover Folkestone Harwich Clacton-on-Sea Pinn Over 15km of pipework renewed to improve the reliability of our service We provide recreational facilities to local community groups 220 million litres of water cleaned and delivered through our largest treatment works Dour 2.5 million being invested in a new storage reservoir 4,000 donated to support local community projects 140 people employed in our local call centre Woking Guildford 5

6 Our challenge Water saving We supply water in an area which has been designated as being under serious water stress by the government. That s why we re working hard to meet the challenge of matching supply with demand. Demand for water is increasing We provide water to one of the fastestgrowing, most economically active regions in the UK. Saving Water Did you know? A reduction in water use can lead to a reduction in energy costs. 21% of household energy bills related to heating, are due to heating water. Reducing leakage Did you know? We plan to reduce leakage by a higher percentage than any other company in England in Wales Metering Did you know? Across the six communities spanning from North Hertfordshire down to North Surrey, less than half of our customers have water meters 6 It s important that we work with our customers and stakeholders to find the best way to leave more water in the local environment while continuing to meet rising demand. Stephen Martin Director of Asset Strategy Our region will have 600,000 more people by 2040 Available water is decreasing We are committed to reducing the amount of water we take from the environment by 42 million litres per day, to help protect our unique and precious ecology. Our Water Saving Programme Between 2005 and 2013 we successfully increased the number of households with a water meter in our Dour community from 54% to 93%. This programme demonstrated a clear link between metering and consumption reduction. Over 40,000 meters were installed as part of the programme Average household consumption fell by 16% Customers now use on average 40 litres less water per person per day than those in the majority of our communities If we do nothing we face a shortfall of 170 million litres of water each day by 2040

7 You said, we did... As a community-focused water company, we believe that engaging with our customers is absolutely vital. We re proud our Business Plan was directly developed from the views, feedback and expectations of our customers and stakeholders. In fact, between 2012 and 2014 we received 12,500 responses through our engagement programme. Commitment Making sure our customers have enough water, while leaving more water in the environment What we did Promised to reduce leakage by 14% an industry-leading level Commitment Supplying high quality water you can trust What we did In 2015 we carried out 170,000 water quality tests on our supply system Commitment Minimising disruption to you and your community What we did Committed to investing over 500 million in our infrastructure Commitment Providing a value for money service What we did Established a Low Income Fixed Tariff (LIFT) for our most vulnerable customers Our customers helped us to shape our Business Plan and it s only right that we are open and transparent about how we re performing against our commitments. The result In 2015, leakage was reduced by 2.6 million litres The result In 2015 we delivered our best ever performance on water quality The result We ve reduced the number of bursts on our network by 9% The result Over 38,000 customers on low incomes now benefiting from our LIFT tariff Christopher Offer Director of Regulation & Corporate Affairs 7

8 Our performance across our communities As part of our Business Plan we committed to publishing our performance against 13 commitments at a company and community level. The table below tells you more. Performance commitment Misbourne Colne Lee Pinn Stort Wey Dour Brett Company overall performance* Target Leakage (million litres of treated water per day) * Average water use (average litres used per person per day) Water available for use (million litres available for use during peak demand) Compliance with water quality standards (Mean Zonal Compliance - Find out more at: Customer contacts regarding discolouration (contacts received per 1,000 population) ** , , % 99.95% 99.98% 99.98% % % % % 99.99% 99.95% Unplanned interruptions to supply over 12 hours , Number of burst mains ,201 3,100 Affected customers not notified of planned interruptions Planned work taking longer to complete than notified Non-community performance Abstraction Incentive Mechanism Sustainable Abstraction Reductions Service Incentive Mechanism (customer survey) Value For Money Survey An Ofwat measure enabling the review of our sustainability performance and comparison with other companies. Not used during 2015/16 Average annual reduction in water abstracted from our river catchments quantified in millions of litres per day. This years reductions were carried out in our Lee community. Our regulator carries out a customer survey to measure how well companies have handled all types of customer contacts. We have set an internal target of being 9th in the industry. We make 2,000 phone calls each year to customers, getting their opinion on whether we offer value. There is currently no target while we continue to develop this metric. N/A N/A /100 N/A *The company total does not always equal the community totals. This is due to the way individual performance commitments are measured **Figure taken from annual-average out turns and therefore does not equal the company leakage figure of ***Figures taken from average household PCC. Figures not normalised for average year. This therefore does not equal the overall company average water use figure of

9 Improving our service This year we ve met 10 out of the 13 performance commitments we set ourselves as part of our Business Plan. We recognise there are areas where we haven t done as well as we should that s why we ll keep doing all we can to improve the service we provide our customers with. Service Incentive Mechanism (SIM) We recognise that our SIM score hasn t been where we would like it. This year we ve improved to 13th out of 18 companies up from 15th the year before. But we know we need to do more. That s why we re investing in our talent and engaging with our customers to get their views on what we can do better. Unplanned interruptions 12 hours In 2015/16 our performance in this area cost us 1.64 million, as we failed to meet our target. Our approach to reducing unplanned interruptions has now changed, by re-focusing our efforts on prevention, restoring supplies and fixing the problem quickly. We ve now got new high volume emergency pumping equipment and are improving processes and competencies to reduce the impact we have on customers when we have bursts. Notifying customers of planned interruptions We did poorly against this performance commitment and we know we have to do more to improve. We re continuing to develop systems and procedures to get better in this area and meet this challenging target. When we do get things wrong, customers are usually entitled to compensation of 20 we ve now increased this to 50. We ve improved to 13th out of 18 companies We are focused on fixing problems quickly 9

10 Providing a better service for our customers We are passionate about providing great customer service. Our customers thoughts are important to us and we use their feedback and insights to improve the service we deliver. This year we have already received feedback from almost 80,000 of our customers, giving them a voice in how we shape our service. COMPLAINTS DOWN BY 35% IN THE SECOND HALF OF 15/16 WE DELIVER OUR WATER THROUGH 16,500KM OF PIPE ENOUGH TO STRETCH FROM LONDON TO SYDNEY 10 I am committed to ensuring that our customers experience an excellent service each and every time they contact us. Amanda Reynolds Director of Customer Relations AREA THEY WORK IN (AND LIVE IN) THE OUR EMPLOYEES KNOW LOCAL CALL CENTRES: RESPONDING TO LOCAL ISSUES QUICKLY AND EFFECTIVELY CUSTOMER FOCUS GROUPS HELPED US 6IMPROVE OUR BILLS PERFORMANCE PUBLISHED 12 times a year ON OUR WEBSITE NEW CUSTOMER RESOLUTION TEAM BROUGHT CONSUMPTION SPECIFIC COMPLAINTS DOWN BY 37% WHENEVER THERE ARE ISSUES ON THE NETWORK WE ARE COMMITTED TO RESPONDING FAST WE CARRY OUT 2,000 PERFORMANCE- FOCUSED CUSTOMER SURVEYS A YEAR THIS YEAR LESS THAN 0.12% OF CUSTOMERS EXPERIENCED AN UNPLANNED DISRUPTION TO THEIR SUPPLY FOR MORE THAN 12 HOURS 400,000 INVESTED IN TRAINING OUR PEOPLE

11 Engaging with our customers, planning ahead Engagement with our communities is really important to us. That s because our customers input helps shape our plans and drive our performance. It s important to us that we hear the views of our customers this lets us understand their priorities and needs in the longer term which we can factor into our plans. What we did in community events attend by our Water Saving Squad 141,000 donated to local community groups Six customer research events carried out. What we re doing in We will carry out at least eight community events We will also undertake extensive customer research And we ll consult with customers on our performance. Customer Challenge Group (CCG) The CCG is there to constructively challenge and advise us on how we should engage with customers and stakeholders and ensure our plans are based on a really good understanding of customers views. I joined the Group as Chair in June 2016 and am looking forward to working with the other members and the company to make a positive difference for Affinity Water s customers. The company has ambitious targets to deliver improvements in quality of service, extend water metering and work with its customers to conserve water supplies by reducing leakage and improving efficient use of water. The CCG will be monitoring how well the company actually delivers against what it promised its customers it would do. We will also be reporting to the industry regulator, Ofwat, on how well we think the company has engaged with its customers in drawing up its future plans. Teresa Perchard Chair of the Customer Challenge Group This year we re going to be very active in our communities talking to customers and local community representatives about our performance. We re going to be seeking views on our Strategic Direction Statement, Water Resources Management Plan, Drought Management Plan and the early planning for our next Business Plan. Strategic Direction Statement Our Strategic Direction Statement is a critical foundation for our next Business Plan, which we will submit to Ofwat in September In it, we ll set out our vision for the next 25 years, after consulting with customers and stakeholders about our priorities during We plan to publish our Statement in spring Water Resources Management Plan Our Water Resources Management Plan considers how we balance water supply and customer demand over the next 25 years and beyond. Our customers views are essential to plan how we make sure they have enough water, whilst ensuring our natural environment remains resilient. We will be engaging with our customers and stakeholders across all of our communities over the coming years before publishing the completed version in Drought Management Plan Our Drought Management Plan describes how we monitor our water resources before a drought, and the triggers for action. The views of our customers can make a huge difference, helping us ensure we make the most of our supplies. Over the next year we ll be talking to customers and stakeholders, making sure we take account of their views. 11

12 We want to invite customers and stakeholders to comment on this report and the performance outlined in it. You can your responses to