Jersey Water has released its Preliminary Financial Results for 2017. The Company is reporting a profit for the year of £3.3 million. Water quality for 2017 remained very good with an overall compliance rate of 99.98%. The Company invested £3.3 million in the Island’s water infrastructure.
Turnover for the year increased by 1.5% to £15.96 million. Operating costs for the year increased by 3.9% to £11.1 million. The additional expenditure of £412,000 was expected and due to increased expenditure on water quality initiatives, cyber security and increases in pension charges. Profit for the financial year was £3,296,000, slightly below the £3,334,000 reported in 2016.
Water quality during 2017 remained very good with an overall compliance rate of 99.98%. Nitrate levels in treated water were the lowest for many years and well below the EU and Jersey regulatory limits. Water supplied by the company remained fully compliant with limits for pesticides, despite ongoing challenges in untreated water with pesticides from farming activity. Jersey Water works to the UK and EU regulatory water quality standards. Compliance rates are based on just under 15,000 analyses of treated water performed during the year by the Company’s laboratory.
During the year Jersey Water invested £3.3 million in its capital expenditure programme which included replacing 2.1 kilometres of mains, extending the network by 1.9 kilometres, connecting 303 homes to mains water, undertaking a number of water quality initiatives and completing the commissioning phase of the desalination plant. Leakage management initiatives resulted in a reduction of 14% in leakage for the year.
In 2017, the Company joined the Institute of Customer Service and commissioned its first ever customer satisfaction survey. Jersey Water scored 83.2% on the ICS benchmark index, outperforming both the UK All-sector average and the Utilities sector in the UK Customer Satisfaction Index.
Jersey Water’s Chief Executive, Helier Smith, said: “We are pleased with our financial performance and with our water quality results for the year. Both are testament to the hard work of everyone in the team at Jersey Water. We are committed to providing the best service and value for our customers and are very proud of the excellent results from the customer satisfaction survey. We will work hard to build on that firm foundation in order to ensure we continue to meet the needs of our customers in the years to come.”