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Our Strategic Direction

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Our Strategic Direction Our strategic direction www.wessexwater.co.uk 1 Contents Introduction 1 Who we are 2 The challenges we face 5 Our performance 7 Our priorities 8 Ensuring long-term success 14 How we will deliver 16 Ideas for structural change 21 This document describes our overall purpose, the context in which we operate and how we will go about delivering for customers, wider society and the environment. It was last published in 2012. Along with our sustainability vision it is designed to inform both our water resources plan which runs to 2045, and our business plan proposals for service and environmental improvements to 2025. Introduction Ours is a position of great responsibility – we are entrusted with providing services that are essential to life and to the health of our local economy. It is our job to ensure that these services are resilient in the face of major social, political, economic and environmental changes. These are challenging times, both in the water industry and beyond. This documents describes how – with the support of an owner that is committed to the long-term – we are delivering today, planning for tomorrow and adapting for the future. The challenges we face – some longstanding, some new, are described on page five. Our job is to meet those challenges in an affordable and sustainable way, and this demands continued innovation and ambition of the kind that we have demonstrated since this report was last published in 2012. Most importantly, however, we are updating our priorities for customers and the environment, including commitments to meeting the needs of customers in vulnerable circumstances and making bills affordable for all. The nature of the business we are in means that everything we do today has an impact on the future. To ensure success in the long-run, Wessex Water must also operate transparently, retain access to capital on reasonable terms, invest in our assets and continue to develop a diverse, skilled and motivated workforce. We have had good success in building partnerships with others and we aim to build new and stronger partnerships in future to help us succeed – with our customers, with important sectors such as the farming community, and with other agencies such as the debt advice sector and environmental organisations. We will also always investigate the use of market-based approaches and implement them where this benefits customers. We are committed to maximising collaboration with local communities; to working in ways that are smart, efficient and resilient, less resource hungry, more sustainable. Proactive, positive partnerships are the key to optimising water resources, water quality, land drainage and flood defence. These are significant issues, and we do not underestimate our responsibilities. I am very confident that the talent and dedication of the people who work for Wessex Water, backed by a supportive owner, will enable us to succeed in delivering the strategic goals described here. Colin Skellett Chief executive your say your future We welcome your contribution to the discussions that we continuously hold regarding the provision of water and environmental services to households and businesses and we actively want to stimulate debate. You can have your say by emailing us your questions, suggestions and feedback at [email protected] Wessex Water Services Ltd 1 Who we are Wessex Water is one of 10 companies licensed by the government regulator Ofwat as a ‘regional water Our region and sewerage undertaker’. We are owned by YTL Our area covers a diverse range of rural and urban Corporation, an integrated infrastructure developer communities, landscapes, wildlife habitats, activities with worldwide operations, and serve 2.8 million and industries, and includes: customers across the south west of England. • the counties of Dorset and Somerset, most of We are proud to deliver services that are essential to Wiltshire, parts of Gloucestershire, parts of the health and wellbeing of the population, to the Hampshire efficient functioning and growth of the regional • the towns and cities of Bristol, Bath, Salisbury, economy, and to the protection of the local Bournemouth, Poole and Taunton environment. • important river and coastal systems • 48 designated bathing waters including the Our primary focus is on water and sewerage but we resorts at Bournemouth, Weymouth and beaches are increasingly taking a wider view, looking at how along Lyme Bay these activities sit within regional water catchments • seven Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and working in partnership with others. • three designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites. 2 Wessex Water Services Ltd Our mission • To provide outstanding, sustainable water and environmental services Our values Our aims Behaviours • – we respect and value everyone's • To provide customers with excellent affordable services. contribution and always operate with integrity and openness. • To protect and improve the environment and Excellence contribute to wider society. • – we aspire to excellence in everything we do. • To be a great place to work in which all Service employees can work safely and reach their full • – serving customers is at the heart of our business and we always go the extra mile. potential. Teamwork • To deliver the best possible returns to investors. • – we are one team working together to deliver our mission. What we do Water (2015 – 2020) Sewerage (2015 – 2020) We treat We take & supply away £277m & treat £405m Minimising 280 Providing sewage flooding £732m reliable services Reducing incidents of Protecǎng Including compleǎng our water sewage flooding by 480 rivers, lakes and estuaries million improving the sewerage supply grid so we can move Improving water quality to network and managing water around million meet environmental £240m litres of rainfall run-off legislaǎon Safeguarding water We maintain and renew litres of drinking water quality We look a er Protecǎng our water a day 7,300 miles sewage sources to safeguard 21,600 miles water quality a day of water mains of sewers We maintain and operate £155m hundreds of water sources, £80m £50m Improving treatment bathing water quality works, Tackling Reducing Increasing levels of the carbon footprint service leakage treatment and waste water reservoirs Producing more renewable storage to keep and energy during waste beaches clean pumping We’re invesǎng further treatment at our staǎons to cut leakage sewage works Pelican Business Services How we operate is a joint venture with Bristol Water which specialises in providing billing, Our water and sewerage operations cover a wide account management and meter reading services. range of activities, and within Wessex Water we EnTrade have created a number of distinct business units that operates a reverse auction trading focus their efforts and expertise in specific areas. platform to reduce nutrient leaching from farmland which helps us to deliver environmental GENeco are experts in energy generation and waste improvements at the lowest cost to our customers. management and they use this to maximise the renewable energy we can extract from sewage This approach helps us retain clear management sludge. focus and helps us to keep finding new ways of working that can deliver benefits to our customers our investors and the environment. Wessex Water Services Ltd 3 Case study: GENeco – maximising the value of bioresources GENeco – set up in 2009 to undertake sludge treatment and to maximise our generation of GENeco’s innovations: renewable energy – continues to reinvent waste management and has won many awards for its • generates around 100GWh of renewable innovative approach. energy (combined gas and electricity) • recycles more than 250,000 tonnes of Sewerage utilities traditionally focused on cost bio-solids to land each year reductions to meet efficiency targets, tighter • built and operates a 35,000 tonne per environmental standards and treatment year food waste recycling facility. requirements imposed by regulators. • diverted 20,000 tonnes of previously untreatable material from the sewage GENeco’s more entrepreneurial approach has treatment process away from landfill enabled us to identify the value of sewage sludge to every year – an industry first the energy and farming sectors, and ultimately, to • completed the UK’s largest gas to grid improve efficiency of operations. facility injecting biomethane derived from sludge and food waste digestion Today, GENeco’s wider services range from food • the Bio-Bus – the UK’s first ever bus and liquid waste treatment to recycling of difficult powered by gas generated during the to treat, biodegradable material. Treatment treatment of inedible food waste and processes used by GENeco produce renewable sewage was dubbed the ‘poo bus’ and energy and nutrient rich biofertilisers which offer a sparked a global debate about how sustainable and cost effective alternative to biomethane vehicles could significantly inorganic fertilisers made from chemicals. reduce air emissions and carbon footprints. The Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) has since awarded funding for more than 70 biomethane powered buses 4 Wessex Water Services Ltd The challenges we face As with any business we look to identify events and trends that will affect our ability to deliver. Here we highlight nine specific challenges – some longstanding, some new – to which we are responding. We are meeting these with affordable and sustainable solutions, through investment, innovation and the expertise of our teams. Resilience The importance and topicality of ‘resilience’ has increased enormously in recent years, prompted by the near collapse of the banking sector, by the increased frequency of extreme weather events and by the possibility of malicious attack. Water and sewerage services are of strategic importance and their failure would impact on the region and its economy. In the face of these stresses and systemic shocks we are putting in place measures to ensure the resilience of our services and the environment as well as to prepare for more predictable impacts such as population growth. Customer vulnerability isn’t new, but we have ensured that our understanding of the issues, causes The long-term health of our assets and consequences of vulnerability has improved.
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