When I wrote the introduction to last year’s Corporate Responsibility Report, I noted that, in my view, Thames Water had enjoyed a good first year under its new ownership and management.
I stated then that assessing how well we were doing was in many ways a judgement for external audiences to make. That will always be the case, but I am pleased to say that 2008/09 saw us reinforce and strengthen this performance against a number of objective measures.
For example, we have again achieved a new best-ever measurement of drinking water quality, reduced customer complaints by 27 per cent and beaten our leakage target for the third year running, despite the coldest winter for 12 years.
We have performed well in many areas across our business. That includes sustaining our improved performance in sewage treatment, making major progress on the amount of waste material we recycle and generating more renewable energy than ever before.
An important part of corporate responsibility is the impact we have on the environment, and we are further strengthening our performance in this area.
For instance, we have increased to a new high the amount of renewable energy we create at sewage treatment works, and now generate 14 per cent of our own power needs. In recycling, we have boosted the proportion of waste we re-use from our capital investment programme to 77.9 per cent.
We are also working hard to improve our customer service. We want to ensure we get it right first time, and have introduced changes to better direct enquiries to the staff who can best deal with them.
We place high importance on attending appointments on time. However, in the minority of cases where we don’t match customers’ expectations, we have improved our compensation payments, increasing
them above the industry minimum.
For instance, we have raised the amount we pay domestic customers if we miss an appointment from £20 to £50.
We have launched the Thames Water Trust Fund, an independent charity to help customers who are unable to pay their water bills. The Fund, to which we donated £417,000, went live in February 2009, and should provide a useful support in the current recession.
In addition to this, we are acting on the results of major research we carried out to really understand the things that particularly please, or annoy, customers when dealing with their water company.
It’s very important we keep in touch with the views of our customers, not just on the services they currently receive, but on what they expect
of us in the future.
That’s why we carried out our largest-ever consultation when putting together our long-term proposals for the next 25 years and, more immediately, our business plan for the period from 2010 to 2015.
As a major company in London and the Thames Valley, it’s right that customers and stakeholders expect us to put something back into the communities we serve.
Our staff are involved in many fundraising efforts, and the number taking part in volunteering events increased in 2008/09.
We are also progressing with our ‘Ten for Ten’ initiative, which we set up using company profits. This £10m will benefit a range of community ventures.
One example in which I have been taking a keen interest is a pontoon we have helped fund for disabled sailors who use Farmoor Reservoir,
near Oxford.
Some of our major sites are important areas for recreation, and I want to see groups such as this making full use of the facilities we offer.
You can read more about this project elsewhere in this report, along with further details on a host of improvements and initiatives across our business.
We’ve listened to feedback on our previous reports and have introduced some changes this year, with the aim of making this a more engaging and informative read.
We’ve summarised our performance on the most material issues in this summary document, while the online version contains full details. You’ll find there a range of new features, such as video interviews with some of our staff and the opportunity to ‘build your own’ report, focusing on the issues that most interest you.
As ever, we’d like to find out what you think – so please let us know your views.
David Owens
CEO Thames Water