As one of Britain’s largest water companies, we supply fresh, clean drinking water to over nine million people across our region - around two billion litres every day. Once used, we collect, clean, and treat the water before safely returning it to the environment. We are one of only three listed water stocks in the UK, offering a valuable combination of reliable earnings, long-term asset growth, and inflation-linked dividends. The UK’s regulatory model provides a high degree of certainty over five-year periods. Within this framework, we lead the sector in Returns on Regulated Equity (RoRE), earning Outcome Delivery Incentives (ODIs) far in excess of any other company in the sector and with a cost of debt among the lowest in the industry.
Our environmental performance has earned the highest possible 4* EPA rating from the Environment Agency every year since 2019, the only company to have achieved this. In March 2022, we launched five Get River Positive pledges to improve river water quality. We are now responsible for just 10.8% of RNAGS (reasons for rivers not achieving good ecological status) in our region, with a goal to reduce this to around 2% by 2030. As part of this commitment, we’re investing £1.1bn across our next regulatory period to halve our number of storm overflow spills by 2030.
More broadly, we’ve made a triple pledge to achieve net zero operational carbon emissions by 2030, source 100% of our energy from renewables, and transition to 100% electric vehicles - subject to the availability of specialist vehicles. We’re well on track with each of these pledges: in 2020, we announced that we were 100% renewable on electricity; in 2023, we became the first UK water company to report EU Taxonomy alignment; and in 2024, we launched the world’s first carbon-neutral wastewater treatment works at our site in Staffordshire.
We are entering our largest ever growth period of growth, with around 60% regulatory asset base growth in the five years to 2030. Most of this investment is driven by statutory targets addressing climate change, population growth, and rising environmental standards. We are uniquely positioned to deliver this thanks to our high level of insourcing, giving us greater control over performance, and our sector-leading Green Recovery programme and transitional expenditure, which has scaled-up our capital programme in line with our new requirements.
We are committed to delivering all of this while continuing to offer one of the lowest average combined bills in the country, and for those who are unable to afford even this bill, we have a comprehensive £575m affordability package for the next five years, allowing us to support around one in six customers with their bills. On top of that, our Societal Strategy aims to improve the life chances of 100,000 people at risk of water poverty by 2033 through access to high-quality employment-related training and career opportunities.
In addition to our core regulated business, we also have a large non-regulated business. Severn Trent Green Power is the UK’s largest producer of renewable energy from food waste, and together with our regulated Bioresources division, it helps Severn Trent to generate more than 60% of the energy we consume. Severn Trent Services offers a range of services that complement our regulated business, including a long-term contract supplying Ministry of Defence sites. Our Property Development business creates value by developing redundant land for sale, which we expect to generate PBIT of £150m between 2017 and 2032.
But the most important part of Severn Trent is the culture we have built. In our annual independent employee engagement survey, we have consistently ranked within the top 5% of utilities globally since it was launched in 2019. And our dedicated training academy continues to foster a pipeline of talent, and the next generation of water industry leaders.
