Water Authority Severn Trent revealed yesterday that it will be cutting 600 jobs over the next five years.

The cuts will be made as part of the group’s drive to improve services across all areas to “achieve higher standards”.

Severn Trent said job losses would be across the whole business, and would hopefully be through voluntary redundancy.

“These process improvements are expected to result in staffing levels – permanent and agency – in Severn Trent Water being reduced by around 600 posts over the next five years,” the firm said in a trading update.

Further details will be outlined at full year results.

In its water and sewerage business, profit before interest and tax for the year is expected to be between 1% and 3% higher than the previous year’s figure of just over £400 million, while spending on infrastructure renewals is expected to be around £100 million for the year.

Severn Trent has said that after restructuring last year, they were focusing on improving performance in the water business. Performance was good over water quality and health and safety but they needed to improve over leakage, customer service and controls, it said.

Severn Trent has said that after restructuring last year, they were focusing on improving performance in the water business. Performance was good over water quality and health and safety but they needed to improve over leakage, customer service and controls, it said.

After a “challenging” summer maintaining water supplies, increased investment in leakage control delivered a downward trend.

Although it will be some months before the annual average for leaks in 2006/07 can be determined against water regulator Ofwat’s target, last month the utility achieved a weekly level of leakage in line with those levels.

In water technologies and services business – including water purification, operating services and UK Laboratories – pre-tax profit was likely to be up between 11% and 13% on last year’s £17 million figure.