Thames Water has warned it will take three years before its finances are back on track again after its flirtation with bankruptcy and a government takeover earlier this year.
Profits fell 54% to £245 million in the half year to end of September 2023 while net debt rose 7% to £14.7 billion or 80% of its assets.
The London-based water utility added revenues increased by 11% to £1.2 billion as customers' bills rose due to the crisis.
“Turning around Thames will take time. We simply cannot do everything that our customers and stakeholders wish to see at a pace and for a price that everyone would like,” interim co-chief executives Cathryn Ross and Alastair Cochran said in a statement.
Thames faced a crunch in June after soaring interest costs on its debts meant it needed an immediate £750 million cash injection and set out plans to raise a further £2.5 billion by 2023.
Current liquidity is £3.5 billion, Thames said today, adding this is sufficient to underpin its next investment programme (AMP7).
That programme is a key plank to it reducing sewage dumping with the group admitting that over the past six months the number of the most serious (1-3) leak categories had increased to 257 from 217.
Thames said its turnaround plan "addresses and mitigates the major drivers of pollutions across our wastewater network and sewage treatment works".
Last week, Kemble Water received a warning from its auditors of a "material concern" over its future as a £190 million loan is due for repayment in April 2024.