South West Water’s ‘green jobs’ pledge
SOUTH West Water is planning to create 500 jobs in the next four years and help the region’s economy recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Exeter-headquartered company’s newly published Green Recovery Initiative has been submitted to the Government and South West Water’s (SWW) regulators. If given the go-ahead, the firm said it would see the water company’s overall investment increase by 10%, creating hundreds of new jobs, benefiting the wider supply chain, and providing opportunities for SWW’s existing workforce to gain new green skills.
The South West’s economy has been one of the hardest hit by Covid19, and SWW, as one of the largest companies in the region, said its Green Recovery Initiative is focused on opportunities to make an even bigger and more societal contribution, with six projects focused on improving public health, protecting the environment and addressing climate change.
The Green Recovery Initiative has been developed with input from customers who, when surveyed, strongly endorsed the proposals.
Support has also been given by the independent Water-Share+ Customer Advisory Panel, whose role includes holding the company to account in delivering for its customers.
Susan Davy, chief executive of SWW parent firm Pennon, said: “Our Green Recovery proposals are focused on opportunities to make an even bigger environmental and societal contribution to the South West for the longer term than we already do today.
“We are confident South West Water can step up to the challenge,
deliver for all, and play our part in the Green Recovery.”
Lord Matthew Taylor, chair of the Water-Share+ advisory panel, said: “These plans for further enhancing the environment, public health, creating new and better jobs are welcomed, especially as customers’ bills won’t be impacted.”
SWW’s Green Recovery Initiative is in addition to existing efforts to support the region, having already accelerated delivery of about £42 million of investment, creating 500 new apprenticeships, and being one of the first companies to take part in the Kickstart work placement scheme.
In November, 2020, Pennon revealed a £15 million fall in halfyear profits, but bosses stressed the business remained “resilient” in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
Pennon’s results for the six months to the end of September, 2020, a period characterised by the Covid-19 crisis and its economic aftershocks, showed an underlying pre-tax profit of £86.7 million. But this was down 14.5% from the £101.4 million profit for the same period in pre-Covid 2019. Revenue was also down slightly, a 1.9% drop from £325.8 million to £319.7 million.
In 2020, the FTSE-100 company made a £1.7 billion profit from the sale of its waste management operation Viridor – having taken £3.7 billion in net cash proceeds, from the £4.2 billion disposal. £750 million of debt is already repaid. £36 million has been injected into the company’s pension scheme.