THAMES Water is set to cut 300 jobs positions after what it has described as a “challenging year.”
The water provider, headquartered in Reading, has announced it is axing 300 roles, but less than half of that number are at risk of redundancy as it aims to minimise compulsory job losses for staff.
This, it says, is due to around half of the positions up for the chop being vacant currently.
It comes after a number of high-profile issues which the company has faced, including heavy criticism from a number of sectors about the practises it and other utilities providers use and their impact on the environment.
The previous month saw both CEO Sarah Bentley and CFO Alastair Cochran turning down bonuses for the 2022/2023 financial year as they aimed to address deteriorating infrastructure and poor performance.
Ms Bentley left the company the following month, leaving it in crisis talks as the government prepared emergency plans for its collapse amid debts of £14 billion.
Also in June, Thames Water said it would go ahead with plans which will see it pump treated sewage into the River Thames– despite objections– as part of its 50-year proposals.
It follows continuing scrutiny for water suppliers across the UK for increased sewage outflow and environmental impact as a result of industry practises.
Thames Water was fined around £32 million in penalties between 2017-2021 according to the Environment Agency, and received a fine of more than £50 million in 2022.
Not only has the practise of sewage discharge been criticised by environmentalists, customers have also raised concerns that providers were continuing to profit despite rising costs and what they argue is a fall in standards.
Privatised water and sewage companies in the UK were estimated to have paid dividends of around £1.4b in 2022, an increase of more than £500m on the previous year.
The company also announced the launch of a £1.6bn modernisation investment during the summer, as well as the re-localisation of customer services, and the expansion of the teams dedicated to repair leaks to more than 1,000 employees.
“Delivering our refocused turnaround plan will strengthen the operational and financial resilience of Thames Water, so that we can continue to meet our customers’ needs, and create a platform from which to accelerate progress, underpinning our business plan for 2025-2030 and beyond.
“However, we know we can’t do everything. The last year has been an extremely challenging year for the business and we continue to take a rigorous approach to financial discipline throughout the company in order to operate within budget.
“We need to make more difficult but necessary decisions to ensure we continue to deliver to our budgets. That’s why today we’ve announced a range of measures to reduce our costs further and become more efficient.
“This means we are consulting on a proposal which could lead to the potential loss of around c.300 roles.
“We will seek to minimise compulsory redundancies wherever possible, through redeployment and voluntary redundancy.
“Front line colleagues will not be impacted by these proposed changes, with roles at risk primarily in our Retail and Digital functions as well as some other areas. Change does mean difficult decisions and we are focused on supporting our colleagues throughout the process.”
