Jersey Water has published its Annual Report and Financial Statements and its Water Quality Report for the year ended 30 September 2021. The Company is reporting a profit before tax of £6.691 million up by £3.451 million on the prior year. The increase in profit is mainly attributable to the £2.144 million profit on the disposal of the Company’s head office at Westmount Road and the profit of £1.871 million on the sale of a residential property.
Turnover increased by £729,000 to £18.356 million in the year due to the combined effect of an increase in income from the installation of new connections and additional water revenue. Despite the ongoing challenges presented by the various aspects of COVID-19, underlying financial performance remained ahead of target with the Company reporting operating profit before disposal of property of £3.418 million; a reduction on the prior year of £562,000 due to higher activity driven contractor costs and other one-off costs associated with the delivery of strategic objectives. The Company is proposing final dividend for the year of 15.321 pence per share: representing an overall increase in dividend to shareholders of 3% for 2021.
Capital investment for the year totalled £3.051 million as the Company continued to invest in maintaining the Island’s water supply infrastructure to a high standard. This ongoing investment contributed to industry leading operational performance during the year in which Jersey Water achieved 100% compliance with water quality standards, reduced leakage rates to nearly half of the UK water sector average and ensured the ongoing reliability of the water supply with under 4 minutes loss of service per customer, the UK sector average is 12 minutes. Customer service levels also remained amongst the best, despite a slight reduction in scores in the year.
Helier Smith, Chief Executive said: “I am extremely proud of everyone at Jersey Water and how as a team, they rose to the challenges presented by COVID-19 for the second consecutive year. The strength of our people and company culture shone through as we adapted and flexed in order to stay safe, whilst maintaining the supply of high-quality water to the Island and ensuring we achieved our operational and strategic objectives.”
“A key focus during the year has been the consideration of risk and resilience in the Island’s water supply. We published our Water Resources and Drought Management Plan which sets out how we will address the forecast 8 million litre per day deficit in water resources expected in severe drought years by 2045. Our focus will be on both demand reduction and providing additional water resources. During 2021, both aspects of the plan were progressed with the development of a new leakage reduction strategy and a feasibility study into extending the desalination plant which is planned to be operational by 2025.”