James Jesic
CEO & Director
Hello, everyone. I’m James Jesic, Chief Executive of Severn Trent, and I’m delighted to be presenting my first set of annual results here from Edgbaston in the West Midlands, a few miles from where I grew up and right next to Birmingham City Center. Now we’re entering a period of sustained long-term growth across the sector, driven by structural trends. These include climate change, population growth and ever-tightening environmental standards. And I’m going to be bringing some of that to life about some of the work we’ve been doing here in Birmingham, the U.K.’s second largest city and home to 1.2 million people shortly.
But before I do that, I’m going to head inside and take you through the highlights of what has been a really strong year for Severn Trent. Our strong performance and execution of our record investment plan is delivering for all stakeholders. We have met or beaten around 80% of our customer performance incentives, delivering GBP 73 million of reward whilst making tangible environmental improvements, including reductions in spills and pollutions, ensuring we remain on track to deliver EPA 4-star for a 7th consecutive year. Accelerating our investment plans means we are in a great position and have real momentum, growing our regulatory asset base by 13% to GBP 15.4 billion this year.
But whilst our bills remain amongst the lowest in the sector, we recognize that increases can put pressure on some households. We remain dedicated to supporting customers who need it most, helping 330,000 with their bills. Reflecting our strong performance and confidence in the outlook, we are upgrading our 2028 earnings guidance to at
