Community investment

We continue to report our community investment through the London Benchmarking Group methodology. In 2009/10 we invested £1.8m in work with our communities. This included cash contributions totalling £1.5m from Thames Water – an increase of 141 per cent.

This large rise in the total value of community investment is predominantly due to increased contributions under our Ten for Ten project (see separate section), including a new pontoon for disabled sailors at Farmoor, bursaries for engineering students and improvements to the Kew Bridge Steam Museum.

Additional investment through leverage brought the total to £2.95m – an increase of 53 per cent from the previous 12 months.

All Thames Water staff are given two volunteering days through a scheme called Time To Give, and over the year 617 employees volunteered a total of 2,879 hours to a variety of projects. These included environmental clean-ups, speaking engagements to schools and community groups, and supporting events such as the London Youth Games.

Colleagues from our Information Services team help out at a litter-picking event in Reading.

Thames Water volunteers helped clear a section of the banks of the River Wandle in south-west London.

Volunteering events included a clean-up by Thames Water staff of the River Wandle in Mitcham, jointly organised with local group the Wandle Trust and London waterways charity Thames21.