A step change in performance since the start of AMP6 has delivered United Utilities best ever Service Incentive Mechanism (SIM) score, according to the water company’s latest trading update published this morning.

United Utilities said further improvements in customer satisfaction over the year and a step change in performance since the start of AMP6 had been achieved through a strong customer focus, combining higher levels of investment to improve resilience, greater use of technology to deliver better customer service and a leading approach to supporting vulnerable customers.

In January, the company hosted the first ever North West Affordability summit, engaging with stakeholders, including customers and building on its existing leading position on affordability and vulnerability.

The utility’s performance against Ofwat's qualitative SIM measure, has positioned the company first in the final wave and achieving an upper quartile position for the year overall.

The performance is mirrored across other customer satisfaction metrics including an upper quartile performance in the UK Customer Satisfaction Index covering all industries and a place as the leading listed company for the Consumer Council for Water's customer satisfaction research.

United Utilities has continued to deliver a leading environmental performance – reflectedin its 'Industry Leading Company' status as measured through the Environment Agency's annual assessment, one of only two companies to achieve this.

Preparations for AMP7

The water company said it is advanced in its plans for PR19, informed by extensive engagement with customers about their needs and priorities, commenting:

“We are on track to submit our PR19 business plan in September 2018 and we are confident that it will deliver against Ofwat's four key themes; great customer service, affordable bills, innovation and resilience. These are not new for us in the way that we run our business and have been areas of focus for us for some time. Indeed, in many of these areas we are a leader in the industry and already have plans in place to build on this in AMP7 and beyond.”

The trading update says United Utilities’ innovative Systems Thinking approach is continuing to drive sustainable operational improvements in service delivery, resilience and Totex efficiencies.

Group revenue is expected to be slightly higher than last year, reflecting the allowed regulatory revenue changes which have been partly offset by the accounting impact of the Water Plus business retail joint venture, which completed on 1 June 2016.

Underlying operating profit for 2017/18 is expected to be moderately higher than 2016/17. Infrastructure renewals expenditure (IRE) has increased slightly in the second half of the year, although full year IRE for 2017/18 is expected to be similar to last year.

RPI inflation has increased this year which is expected to increase the company's regulatory capital value (RCV) by around £400 million. United Utilities is expecting the underlying net finance expense for 2017/18 to be around £40 million higher than last year due to the impact of higher RPI inflation on index-linked debt.

The company also expects to see a small increase in group net debt at 31 March 2018 compared with the position as at 30 September 2017.

The update attributes a strong balance sheet, a stable IFRS pension surplus and gearing comfortably within thetarget range of 55% to 65% net debt to RCV to United Utilities’ responsible approach to financial risk management, supporting a solid A3 credit rating with Moody's ratings agency.

Current trading is in line with the group's expectations for the year ending 31 March 2018 -full year results for 2017/18 will be published on 24 May 2018.