Thames Water has said the ‘Beast from the East’ in the winter and a hot summer hindered its ability to improve infrastructure and constrained supply leading to a big fall in half-year profits.
The UK's biggest water and wastewater services provider saw its underlying pre-tax profits nearly halve to £67.7mln, down from £129mln a year earlier, as revenue fell to £1.0256bn, down from £1.0428bn.
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It pointed out that the extreme cold weather at the start of the year had caused pipes to burst, while the summer heatwave had brought supply problems as reservoirs dried.
The firm – part of Kemble Water Holdings Ltd, an infrastructure consortium led by Australian investment bank Macquarie Group - said it had received 11,083 written complaints about supply interruptions in the six months to 30 September, up from 8,242 in the same period a year earlier.
Thames Water’s chief executive, Steve Robertson commented: "During the intense summer heatwave, we worked tirelessly to protect our customers from supply restrictions. However, along with the impact of the Beast from the East, it has delayed our progress on leakage and other performance measures.”