Business
Trading Statement
Trading Statement.
About this update from United Utilities Group Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \n \n \n RNS Number : 9314Z\n United Utilities Group PLC\n 24 September 2020\n \n \n \n United Utilities Group PLC\n 24 September 2020\n UNITED UTILITIES TRADING UPDATE\n United Utilities announces the following trading update ahead of its half year results on 25 November 2020.\n Current trading is in line with the group's expectations for the six months ending 30 September 2020.\n COVID-19\n Our focus throughout the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be on supporting customers in the provision of essential services whilst protecting our colleagues. Throughout the pandemic, we have continued to supply drinking water, take away wastewater and carry out essential repairs for over 3 million households in the North West. We have also acted swiftly to support customers who are struggling to pay their bills through our extensive financial assistance schemes. Increasing numbers of vulnerable customers are being supported through our Priority Services scheme.\n Operational performance\n Operational performance in the first half of the year is on track against our AMP7 plan, notwithstanding the pandemic, and we continue to target net outcome delivery incentive (ODI) outperformance for the full year 2020/21.\n We have been able to accelerate our capital expenditure profile for AMP7 (compared with the assumed profile in the final determination) to deliver benefits earlier than would otherwise be the case, as was successfully achieved in AMP6.\n Strong environment, social and governance (ESG) credentials\n Earlier in September, we were pleased to be recognised for our approach to sustainability: we are one of only eight UK listed companies to be included in the Global Challenges Index (GCX) that recognises the top 50 companies worldwide for their approach to sustainability; and we achieved 11th position in EcoAct's FTSE100 leaderboard for how we report our sustainability performance. Also in the month, we launched an investor guide1 to our long-standing commitment to ESG, detailing key achievements to date and our ambitions for the future.\n Financials\n Cash collection from our household customer base has been consistent with the targets that we set before the COVID-19 pandemic. Although we anticipate bad debt may increase as government support schemes come to an end, we secured early agreement during the pandemic to extend our social...