Severn Trent makes 'good start' to the year

Water supply company Severn Trent said on Thursday that it had made "a good start" to the year operationally, with the group now expecting to receive at least £50.0m in outcome delivery incentive outperformance payments in 2023.

Severn Trent added that as expected, it has also seen an increase in operating costs, particularly energy and chemicals, but also noted that it had benefitted from its "decade of investment" into renewable energy generation and generated 145-gigawatt hours of energy in the first quarter - over 50% of its total consumption.

The FTSE 100-listed firm highlighted that energy self-generation levels were 4% higher than at the same time a year earlier.

Severn Trent also noted that it was "confident" that it will retain its four-star Environmental Performance Assessment rating for 2021 and expects this to be confirmed by the Environment Agency in the near future. The group added that it remains on track to meet or exceed targets on all of its environmental ODIs for the current trading year.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com