Good morning, everybody, and thank you so much for coming here this morning. I'm Susan, CEO of Pennon Group, and I'm joined by Laura, our CFO, today. I am delighted to be in person and great to see so many of you who've come along to hear the presentation. Now, I'm often asked, why do I work in the Water Sector? I think the answer is the same that I gave 28 years ago when I first started. Quite simply, I'm in Water because it's too important not to be. What we do really matters, really matters to people and to communities every single day. This morning, the review undertaken by Sir Jon Cunliffe has reported on its Interim Findings, and I'm sure some of you might ask some questions about that later. Let's be clear.
I'm excited about what comes next for the sector, what comes next for Pennon, and what comes next for our Customers and our Shareholders. We are going to have a look at what's ahead for Pennon, but I wanted to take a few moments to reflect on the end of the K7 Regulatory Delivery Period. We have just ended with a 2024-2025 year, and that also marks the end of the five-year period that we have had to 2025. For some of you in the room today, because I recognize many of you, we last met in the West Country in March, where we took you on a Day Trip to the Seaside for those of you that came.
We were showcasing some of the Investments that we had made, some of the work we had done on our Natural Habitats as well, the Innovation that we have been deploying, the Training Centers we have been creating for our thousands of brilliant Employees and Colleagues across the business. It was all about being focused on what it is like to walk in the shoes of our customers. The stars of the day, if you recall, were Denzel and Kilo. They were two of our Leakage Dogs who are trained to detect small traces of Chlorine and can cover miles of Rural Land, which is really important for our regions, and successfully find leaks as much as the work we do with our Satellites and Drone Pilots.
I'm sure many people, when I got some of the emails that came back, many people were commenting on the Dogs, and I think they were a real hit. They do a fantastic job. I think it was great to have people come down, but there, of course, is always a Balanced Scorecard to reflect on too. I think that's where the presentation we will start with. How do we think we've got on for K7? There are four things that I really want to talk about today, and then we can obviously have a reflection about the outlook and what we see coming next. Four things I'd like to cover. The first, we've spoken to our customers, thousands and thousands of them, about the priorities and what matters most to them.
We have been delivering on four Strategic Priorities that we have made as the pillars within our organization and that are all the things that customers really care about. We have been delivering. We have done well. We have delivered on 70% of Stretching Regulatory Targets, which comparatively across the sector puts us in the top Quartile. That is the first thing I am going to reflect on. The second thing, we are serving more Communities and Regions across the group. We have a different strategy. We have a strategy of Organic Growth, yes, but also acquisition. More recently, we added SES Water to the group and got CMA Approval last June. We are spreading the work that we do with all those Communities and delivering against those Stretching Targets for them. Thirdly, we are going to talk about 2024-2025.
It has been a challenging year for us operationally, and we've had a Financial Reset as well. We've Reset, we've Reshaped the business. It is a Point of Inflection into K8 and following the Funding and Financing that we have done. Thank you to many of you in the room who have supported and the successful rights issue. We have got a strong Balance Sheet going forwards. Lastly, that strong platform secured for the future. Actions taken this year undoubtedly put us in a good place. We've also got our outstanding and good business plan assessments relative to South West Water and certainly Surrey. We are on with them. We are doing it, and I'm really confident that we have a robust outlook for K8.
The four strategic priorities that we focus on, and we have Realigned our business internally and Reshaped the business internally to make sure that we're really focusing on these because they're really important to our customers and therefore really important to us. First one, always, is around Water Resources and Safe, Clean Drinking Water and improving Drinking Water Quality. We will touch on it, I'm sure, but it has been a hot, dry start to 2025, hasn't it? We learned our lesson in 2022. We've been investing significantly to break the drought, and we have broken that drought cycle. As I'm here today and with the forecasts that the team have been working through, we don't see the need for a hosepipe ban in the Southwest as we had in 2022. We're in a very different place. That's a really good outcome.
Now, Water Quality, really important that we have improved our Water Quality position. Necessarily so, given the incident that we had in Brixham last summer where we worked tirelessly to return safe, clean Drinking Water to the people and businesses in and around Brixham in Devon. Eight hundred colleagues were there focused with our Supply Chain Partners as well in making sure that we were flushing 30,000 km of network 27 times, installing UV and Filtration to make sure we could restore the resource as quickly and effectively as possible. Obviously, I'd like to thank the customers for their incredible patience and for the kindness that they showed colleagues through that. It is so important that we have delivered on our Water Quality targets. Second priority, no surprise, I'm sure, tackling Storm Overflows, the use of them, and eradicating pollutions. I will go through this in some more detail later.
Two things that I'm really wanting to talk about today. First of all, we always said in K7 we were going to focus on the impact for Homes and Businesses. Things like Internal Sewer Flooding and External Sewer Flooding for homes and businesses is really troubling to our customers, to any customers when it happens. Making sure we delivered on that was important, and we have set to leading. Bathing Waters, we have 860 miles of coastline that we look after for our regions. Our customers understand it's an incredibly important, valuable asset for them, and we know that. Making sure we've got Bathing Water standards for the fourth year running at 100% is really important. We've ticked the box there. Where do we need to do more? You can see there. The EA's Environmental Performance Assessment, we're forecasting again for 2024.
The final close down is not out yet, but we're anticipating another two-star. Why? Our pollution to water courses overall, we've got to do better. There are some improvements beneath the headlines, which I will talk through. We've got to do better. Third priority, driving Environmental Gains. I was just chatting at Coffee with one of our supporters on the Banking Side, and they were talking about the work that we have been doing. They come down for a visit to look at all the Catchment Work we've been doing, where we're working with a great % of our Farmers and those who have significant Land Holdings, where we work to make sure that the natural environment improves the quality of Water that we have and that we rely on to serve our customers. I'm really pleased over this five-year period that we have been making those improvements.
You can see the hectarage there that we've improved. You can also see the reasons for not achieving good ecological status has reduced for us from 19% to 12%. A huge undertaking, lots more to do going forwards, but some great strides that have been made. The picture that you can see there is of our Pennon Power Assets, Renewable Energy. We are a large user of Electricity. All that moving water around takes a lot of energy. We have invested and are investing in four sites that when they are up and running represent around 40% of our generation, Power Generation needs. I'm sure we will talk about that later. Lastly, supporting our customers. It is not the last priority. It is one of the key priorities that we have.
We're really proud and pleased of the work that we do to support our customers. We have been working to make sure that customers, despite the Fact Bills have gone up, that customers are in a good place in terms of the bills that they receive and the tariffs that they're on. We ended the Regulatory Period with 100% affordability. That was a really important position for us to get to so that we knew when the bills come that we could then have that contact with our customers and support them going forwards. We're pleased with the work we've done and the outreach work. There is more to do, which I will touch on. As I said at the beginning, 70% of our outcomes and Stretching Regulatory Targets we have delivered on. That puts us up a quartile relatively in the sector.
It still means there's more to do. We didn't get 100%. We got 70%. They were stretching, and we have made improvements. That's all been done and underpinned with record investment. That's what I would summarize in terms of the priorities and where we are with those. I touched on the fact that we do have a different approach at Pennon in terms of our growth. We've had a twin-track approach of both Organic and Acquisitive. Why do we do that? Why have we got that? Now, the RCV has grown by 75% over the Regulatory Period to 2025, and 30% of that growth has come from Acquisition. Why not just Organic? We think there are real benefits to consolidation. We've said it before, and we can see it in the results that we've got. It's about delivering efficiently.
Coming together, we get to deliver things in a way that you would not have as a standalone business. If you look back to the acquisitions that we have made, Bournemouth Water, two new state-of-the-art treatment works that we have invested on. A few weeks ago, I was at Alderney where we were just looking at the work that we had completed. I met with the Water Minister and our regulator Ofwat to give them a sneak preview of the works. Once it is commissioned, along with the Knapp Mil Treatment works as well, that will be providing around 85% of customers' needs in and around Bournemouth. What is exciting about that is it was state-of-the-art off-site build techniques, the largest off-site Modular build that has happened in the U.K., delivered at twice the speed of Traditional Projects, and it has just been awarded the King's Award for Enterprise Innovation.
The good thing about coming together in the sector and the consolidation that we have done, yes, we are able to invest in New Treatment Works for customers, and they will get the Safe C lean Drinking Water that they want. The way we do that efficiently and effectively, we do that from that acquisition. Ours of water, Isles of Scilly water, sorry. We took that on in 2020. Interesting time to take it on in COVID, but we took them on. Customers in the islands are now experiencing first-time sewage and a step change in Water Quality.
I was really pleased when I went to the Drinking Water Inspectorate's Annual Update last year, and the Isles of Scilly have made it onto the map and made it onto the chart for the first time, which was great to see and is in there in the pack in terms of Water Quality Results. Bristol Water, we've successfully resurrected plans to construct a new Reservoir to improve the South West Water Resilience. That would not have happened as a standalone. The previous plans were scrapped by the previous owners, and we've resurrected that, and that's the right thing to do. Lastly, certainly SES Water, we've obviously made sure that Financial Resilience is there. Our Beach Reservoir, there are opportunities for that going forwards.
The other thing that we've done as part of these Acquisitions and part of our approach is make sure that we've got a growing Shareholder base of customers. With the Acquisitions that we made, we also have Share Issuances, and we now have quite a number of customers, in fact, four times the number of Institutional Shareholders who are Shareholders. We're in a really good place for them to be part of the story going forwards. My list of things I was going to talk about, 2024-2025, I'm saying is a Point of Inflection. Why do I say that? It has been a challenging year with a number of moving parts. I'll talk you through some of those moving parts, and I'm sure Laura will go into this in some more detail.
The first area that I'm going to talk about on the left for me is around the Revenues and the Water Efficiency work we've been doing. We have been really driving our Water demand Initiatives with customers. Our learnings from the drought, we know it's really important. Our learnings from affordability for customers, we know that's really important. If they use less, it will cost them less. We know that in achieving that 100% affordability, you've kind of got to do both. We've been doing a whole host of campaigns. What that has meant is that we have had, on a like-for-like basis, Water Business Wholesale Revenues lower than you would have anticipated. That has contributed to the loss before tax that you will see in the results.
It has been the right thing to do, and there are obviously revenue mechanisms in place to protect Future Recovery. It has been an important part of what we have done. The second important part of what we have done this last year is make sure that we've reshaped, right-sized, and we're in the right place for what we need to do going forwards. Yes, we have made savings. Yes, we have thought about how to structure the business differently. Yes, we have put around 35% more staff on the front line over the last few years, which has been an important part of the work that we have been doing to make sure we are well prepared for what we need to deliver on. We have reset the Cost Base .
We have delivered GBP 76 million of Annualized Savings, which we will see coming through in future years. We are on target to meet the GBP 86 million that we have set ourselves ahead of time. Third, investment, which again has had an impact on the 2024-2025 Income Statement. We have been Advancing, Investing, making sure we can deliver for our Customers and Communities. That obviously is setting in good stead going forwards. That has had an Income Statement impact that we will get recognition of going forwards into K8. What does that mean for our overall returns? The fourth bubble. Our Water Share Mechanism is all about making sure that we are performing. Where we do perform, we can share some of those benefits with our customers. We have performed, and over the K- period, returns are around about 190 basis points above base returns.
We've got a strong Balance Sheet , GBP 1.3 billion of fundraising. I said earlier, thank you to everyone who's been supporting. Balance Sheet is in a really good place, and we're in a really strong position. Lastly, because of the work we've done on the Balance Sheet , there's a lot of rebasing around the dividends. We have performed. We have performed as a business. Yes, there are things that we need to do more of going forwards, but we are in a good place. The dividend that we are announcing today that we've put to the AGM is a 3.4% growth CPIH in line with what we had announced earlier this year. Reset, Rebased for K8. What about that Strong Platform for the future? A couple of things I would point to.
It's always a really good idea to get your good business plan in and get a good assessment so you can start delivering on it. We've done that with both South West Water and certainly Surrey business plans. We're already delivering against that. We know the business plans will give a growth in our RCV and a growth in Capital Investment at a Run Rate that we are already at. We are driving Efficiency and Innovation through the Supply Chain Amplify Alliance that we have set up, and they're already working on thousands of schemes to make sure we can deliver for our customers. In terms of Driving Efficiency and Driving Performance, we have said before we're targeting a 7% return in K8, which pretty much is a continuation of the outperformance rate I just talked about for K7. In a good place for K8.
With that, Laura's going to come on and talk about the results on the Financial Side.
Thank you, Susan. Good morning, everybody. Good to see you all here today. Let me talk you through this year's Financial Results, as well as some of the Key Aspects of K7 as we close out this Regulatory Period and head into the next. First of all, looking at the financial highlights for the year, we're pleased to have delivered a stable EBITDA Performance against a challenging sector backdrop. This has led to a loss before tax of GBP 35.1 million in line with our expectations. I'll come on to some of the reasons for this as we go through the presentation. Our Cumulative RORE over AMP7 has remained strong at 6% for South West Water on a Water Share basis, providing outperformance over the regulated Cost of Equity.
We continue to invest record amounts in our Water Group with GBP 652 million of CapEx this year, principally from the Water Business. This includes early start Expenditure and positions us well for delivery in K8. Our rights issue in February raised GBP 490 million of Equity, which means that our Water Group Gearing ends K7 at 61.8%, with Group Gearing just a couple of percentage points higher at 64.3%. Finally, our proposed full-year dividend rebased for the rights issue is 31.57 pence per share, consistent with our policy announced in January of the total dividend growing in line with CPIH. Our full-year results from an income perspective basis, it's important to note that this includes the full-year results from the ses Water Group, compared with around three months of those results in the prior year following the acquisition in January.
Excluding SES, it's been a challenging year for the Water Business , with, as Susan mentioned, customer demand measures reducing our anticipated in-year revenues, whilst record K7 investment has continued, which has impacted on our financing charges and our depreciation. We will see the benefit of that investment come through our revenues next year. Given this year's Flat Revenue s year on year and increasing capital-related charges, as anticipated, we're reporting a loss of GBP 35.1 million on an underlying basis this year. We've also reported non-underlying items of GBP 37.6 million, reflecting the costs of the Brixham Water Quality incident, as well as costs to support our ongoing transformation and reshaping activities. These activities will drive cost efficiencies as we move into K8 to help ensure we maintain a stable Cost Base .
Looking a little more closely at the revenue line, again, as I say, the full-year impact of SES is incorporated into the full-year results for the first time compared with the three months prior year. We then see an inflation and tariff movements on South West Water offset by lower customer demand impacted by our Water Efficiency measures and helping ensure customers' bills remain affordable. This has led to broadly Flat Revenue s in South West Water, whilst our non-household retailers continue to perform strongly, with Pennon Water Services seeing an increase in revenues through tariff and new contract wins partially offset by also seeing some customer demand reduction. Overall, this means we're reporting full-year revenues of just over GBP 1 billion at GBP 1,047.8 million. Our Underlying EBITDA is broadly flat year on year at GBP 335.6 million.
Again, this reflects the full-year benefits of SES being within the group, whilst the Flat Revenue for South West Water can be seen in the numbers on the chart here. From a cost perspective, inflation was broadly offset by Operational Efficiencies, and we have then seen costs from investment in new Technologies, including our Customer Experience Platform and Network Monitoring Activities, as well as greater focus on frontline activity in order to close out the AMP position as well as we move forward. As we head into K8, we are very focused on ensuring that we are delivering efficiently as well as effectively for our customers. We made a commitment to deliver GBP 86 million of annualised benefits in K8. We are making strong progress against that target, with GBP 76 million annualised benefits being identified and in progress as we speak. Particularly of note, that falls into two categories.
One around the Integration Synergies and Benefits we obtained from our Acquisition Strategy. We've now completed our Integration Savings, and they are fully underway for Bristol Water. We've made strong progress on delivering Synergies with SES Water, where we've got nine of the committed GBP 11 million Synergies in train. We've also made strong progress in reshaping the business and driving underlying Operational Efficiencies. We've identified GBP 47 million of benefits that are underway in terms of delivering operational benefits as we move forward. We've also, as Susan mentioned, reshaped the business to align with our four Strategic Priorities to ensure we deliver effectively and efficiently as we move forward.
Talking of our four Strategic Priorities, our Capital Investment Program continued at record levels across 2024-2025, with key projects such as the Alderney Treatment Works in Bournemouth, our WaterFit Program to deliver our storm overflow and environmental targets, as well as delivering on our win outputs for K7. Pennon Power continued to progress with construction, in particular of the Fife project, and will continue as we move forward into the next AMP. Of course, this has been a key year on which we've focused on our Balance Sheet resilience, completing our GBP 490 million rights issue earlier on in this calendar year. Last year also saw the launch of our EMTN Public Bond Program.
We've raised around GBP 800 million of debt this year, continuing to focus on our diversified Debt Portfolio and delivering an effective Interest Rate that will enable us to outperform the Regulatory Allowances as we move forward into the 2025-2026 Financial Year. We end the year with Gearing of 61.8% in the Water Group, again benefiting from the rights issue and putting us in a good position for delivering on our GBP 3.2 billion capital program across the K8 period. Our Group Gearing is a few percentage points higher at 64.3%. As we close K7, our Water Group RCV is just a touch under GBP 6 billion and reflects the 75% growth that we've seen over this five-year period, both through the Organic Growth in South West Water as well as the acquisition of Bristol Water and SES Water.
Alongside this growth, we've delivered 6% real RORE over the five-year period and at a Water Business level have added around GBP 900 million of Shareholder Value, with around GBP 700 million still retained within the group. For K8, we target to continue the current level of outperformance on the cost of capital, as Susan mentioned earlier, with a target, as I'm sure many of you are fully aware, of 7% RORE over the five-year period. At the rights issue, we confirmed our financial framework for the K8 period with 7% returns on Notional Equity and a dividend growing in line with CPIH. Our two investment-grade credit ratings will provide confidence in our Financial Position, supported by our Gearing Policy of 55%-65% for the Water Group, whilst our GBP 3.2 billion capital program will result in 34% growth over the period to 2030, based on the final determination.
Finally, let me come on to the outlook for the next Financial Year. I believe the outlook for the year is strong, with a good return to profitability as we head into the new period. We see that driven by a reset of our revenues in line with the allowed regulated revenue in the Water Group, alongside a stable Cost Base, which will lead to EBITDA increasing by around two-thirds year on year and a strong improvement in our operating profit. We will see a consequential increase in Financing Costs and depreciation with the ongoing record levels of capital investment. We also will see, from a CapEx perspective, the profile being front-end loaded in terms of that Capital Investment Profile over the five-year period.
From an outperformance perspective, that 7% RORE is very much a focus, and we see benefits from financing and totex efficiency in this coming year, whilst we target a neutral position across our ODIs as we transition to a new set of targets from Ofwat. Thank you for your time. I'll now hand back over to Susan.
Thank you, Laura. I think, as I said before, it really is a point of inflection and a reset into 2025-2026. You can see that from the outlook slide that Laura's just taken you through. I'm going to go back to some of the operational aspects of the business and what we've been delivering and how we've landed at the end of this Regulatory Period and for 2024-2025.
I said at the beginning, in terms of tackling pollutions and reducing the use of Storm Overflows, when we think about that within the business, we think of it in two ways. We think about how we're protecting homes and businesses, so by reducing homes who are impacted by Internal Sewer Flooding is incredibly important to our customers, and we've done really well at that. In fact, we've got industry-leading performance for it, and we're a good performer for External Sewer Flooding as well, where you can see a 24% reduction in the number of External Sewer Floodings that we've had. That has been a really good aspect of our performance.
If you look at the pollution incidents that we have and you add in those that go to water courses as well, on a total emissions basis, which is on the right-hand side of that chart, we do have a good position in terms of our overall number of pollutions. Now, one pollution is one pollution too many, and we have to eradicate them. We are making progress. The area where we need to make the most progress is around water course pollutions, and that is what is measured in the Environment Agency's EPA Assessment. You can see from the chart on the right-hand side that there have been some differences of performance over this K7 Regulatory Period. What we have got to do is make sure that we are consistently reducing and eliminating those pollution incidents.
Now, the headlines mean that we are still anticipating an EPA two-star for 2024, and we have to get these numbers down. The good news is, underneath, in terms of those headlines, we are seeing reductions in network pollution incidents over this Regulatory Period. We've invested significantly. Thousands of Sewer Tech monitors that we've put in that are allowing us to get ahead of incidents. That is also helping us with sewer collapses as well. We've got more work to do on our other assets, which the team is on with. We have a Regulatory Assessment Point for the business plan, which is 2028, to deliver that four-star EPA Assessment, which then flows back into returns. We have our reduction plans in place to achieve that. I'm going to move on in terms of Storm Overflows.
We know from feedback, we know ourselves that we have to do more to eradicate the use of Storm Overflows. We are driving spills down through interventions. That said, we have had, not for excuse, but for context, incredibly wet weather over the last couple of years, which is good in the sense it has tested our systems, it has tested our networks, and we know where those issues are. You can see that we are one of five companies to reduce spills last year by 4%. It is the right direction. There is much more to do. We are really focused on making sure we are intervening and getting those investments in where we need to so that we can reduce those spills.
Now, that's going to be a combination of both Hard Engineering with more Storm Storage, but also some of the Catchment Work that we're doing and some of the nature-based solutions to get those flows out of the systems. It is going to take us 15 years to get this storm overflow program done, but we are making progress. One of the things that we always want to make progress on is our Bathing Waters, and any spills around Bathing Waters is something that, of course, our communities and visitors to the region really look at. We have reduced that over K7. It is reducing, but we've got to go further. Still pleased with the bathing Water Quality, but we need to do more. It has been good in terms of understanding our systems and our networks and our assets, but there is more to do.
I'm going to move on to Water Resources and Water Quality. When we had the drought in 2022, we thought long and hard about how we were going to tackle that. We have broken the drought cycle. That is the headline. You can see there the resource increases that we have available to us for use and when needed. We have achieved 100% on the index, which is all about the health of your Water Resources . We are in a good place. As I said, for 2025, we were ahead of the target levels we'd set ourselves. We are in a good place for this summer without restrictions. Now, in terms of looking after the environment and looking after customers' purses and wallets, we want to encourage reducing demand and driving Water Efficiency.
We have had a number of schemes that we have implemented with our customers so that they can understand how they can affect usage within their homes. That has gone well. There have been some challenges with some of the tariffs that we've implemented. We have learned lessons from those. We have had feedback at how we've implemented them. There are trials. That feedback has been really rich and means we can do something going forward. Ultimately, when you look at the demand reductions that we're getting from those, it shows it's the right direction and the right thing to do. Our smart metering program, the picture of which you saw at the front of the presentation, is going to be really helpful in driving this. Now, it's not just about what our customers do.
It's obviously about what we do with our own network as well. That's where we're focused on leakage reduction. You can see there the numbers, the % of reduction in leakage we've had from 2023-2024 into 2024-2025, which was good for certainly Surrey. We have missed the target in year four, South West Water and Bristol Water. You can see the reductions we've made, but we need to do more. We will be focused on that going forward into 2025-2026. Nevertheless, a good reduction. Over K7, we've had some good strides in leakage overall. Water Quality, I touched on it earlier. It is the number one priority for customers to get clean, safe Drinking Water . We are making good progress with our quality-first rollout across the group.
Now, I mentioned Brixham earlier, which I will touch on again in the sense that we all know how important it is to our customers to receive that safe, clean Drinking Water . Our focus on this is unwavering. We have to make sure that we are in a good place. You can see from the chart there where we are positioned relatively. Our third priority that we talked about earlier, driving environmental gains, improving Water Quality. The RMAC, as I said, we had reduced. That has been from investment. We have invested around 37 sites. We have had a reduction in the amount of Phosphorus that is going into Raw Water, which obviously improves the Water Quality for those communities. In terms of the work we do in Catchments, yes, it is about the heterogeneity we complete as well.
There are added benefits of the work that enhances Biodiversity more broadly. We work with our partners to deliver that. In doing that, we leverage much more in terms of contributions for areas like Peatland Restoration. You get added benefits of the investment we make with much funding from elsewhere. It is incredibly helpful for the region. Lastly, in terms of our net zero commitments, Pennon Power is one key aspect of that. We have got the sites under construction, and one is in cold commissioning. If I move on to the next slide, which is a very busy slide, it nevertheless gives you all the detail that you would want on those four sites that we are investing in. We said before, yes, they are helpful for net zero.
Yes, they're helpful for the power offset that we have within the group, but they do make returns as standalone projects that are in excess of the regulatory returns. From a Capital Allocation perspective, it makes sense. Having said that, we will obviously review and optimize what we're doing with these assets, as I've said before, when we get close to completion of the projects. Now, the last priority that I want to talk through, which I mentioned earlier, was how we support our customers. We know it is really important that we engage with our customers as much as we can. I personally am really pleased that I get out to see customers all the time. I toss it up that last year I've met over 1,000 customers face-to-face. It's a brilliant way to understand what they really think about the business, the sector, the services we provide.
Obviously, feet is held to the fire with all sorts of questions that you might imagine that I'm asked about, but it's a great way to think about understanding their priorities. One of the things that we also want to make sure that we do is that we support those customers who find themselves in vulnerable circumstances. You can see there from the chart, this is showing how many customers we've added to our register, which is really important so that when we have incidents and we are critical National Infrastructure, and sometimes we get incidents and things go wrong, we need to make sure that we are in contact with those customers who will need the help most. We are really pleased with the work we've done around the Priority Services Register, and that has increased the number of customers on it.
Now, obviously, we talked earlier about affordability, and we talked about the work we had done to make sure that our bills in K7 were as low as they could be. In fact, for 2024-2025 bills, they were lower than they were 10 years prior. That has helped in terms of engaging customers. If you look at our Customer Debt Aspects and our Cash Flows from Customer Bills, the percentage of revenue that is associated with customers that do not pay their bills is 0.9%. It is probably the lowest percentage that we have ever had. We are in a good place going forward to support customers with the bill increases that I know they have had. We have significant support packages that we have had for customers over K7.
We absolutely focus on working with our Local Communities through roadshows and supporting Local Charities as well, which really help make sure that we are embedded in those communities. Going forwards, we've got in place, which we had in our business plan, a GBP 200 million support package for customers over the next Regulatory Period. Laura touched on our business-to-business retailers. That market has been open since 2017. We enjoy being part of that market. We enjoy helping our business customers, Pennon Water Services and Water2Business that we got through the acquisition with Bristol Water, are two of the best-performing retailers in the sector. Certainly, Surrey Business Water, which we've got through the acquisition with SES, we're looking at how we might incorporate that within the group going forwards. We're pleased with the work that we do with our business customers.
You can see from those Trustpilot Scores, which are better than Amazon, better than John Lewis. I know that the teams are doing a good job in supporting those customers. Lastly, in terms of the colleagues that we have and the brilliant people that we have across the group, one of the things I really love about working in this sector is that there is a real history and heritage built up over many years. Everyone who works at Pennon is really proud of their heritage in the Water Sector, whichever region that they are serving. There are generations of fathers, sons, mothers, and daughters who really have dedicated their lives to water. I am really proud of the brilliant teams that we have got. In terms of supporting them, we obviously have lots of investment in terms of training. We have different schemes.
We've had 680 people come through our Apprenticeship and Graduate Schemes. We have those schemes that also we've embedded within our Amplify Alliance as well. Thank you to all the colleagues who have been helping us day to day. One of the things that I've been most proud of actually isn't on that slide, but our health and safety track record has significantly improved over the past five years as we work to make sure that everybody goes home safe. We've ended this Regulatory Period with the lowest ever rate for absence, which has halved over the last five years. The teams have done a really good job. One of the things we want to make sure we do is always make sure that our colleagues go home safe. Last slide from me, which is about the end to K7.
It's the same slide I had at the beginning. Four things in terms of the takeaway for us. We are delivering on our strategic priorities. We have more to do, yes, which is why we've got all the investment coming into K8, but we are delivering on our four Strategic Priorities. We are, through our acquisitions, serving more customers and communities, and that's serving both investors and customers well. Yes, 2024-2025 has been a point of inflection into 2025-2026, and Laura's taking you through what 2025-2026 is going to look like. All the work we have done has reset and rebased us for what comes next. We have got a strong platform for what we're going to do. With that, we're going to go to Q&A. Thank you.
I had a couple of questions. Firstly, on the non-Regulated Businesses, you touched upon Business Retail a little bit, but could you flesh out a bit more what the outlook is there? Because I know when you made your acquisitions, one of the aims was to grow the non-Regulated Businesses. Is there anything else that's non-Regulated other than the Business Retail? The second question is on Thames. Basically, how do you see the situation at Thames impacting you? Do you see it impacting you at all? How do you think about it? Thank you very much.
Yeah, okay. First of all, in terms of the Retail Businesses, which you said on the slide, we're really pleased with being in that market, and it has served us well. The acquisitions, yes, we've got water to business investment through our acquisition of Bristol, and we've got SES Business Water as well.
What do we see for that going forward? We are pleased that we are in that market. We are doing well at it. You can see from the scores and the profitability for Pennon Water Services and Water2Business that the teams are doing a good job and therefore making a return as well. We shall see how that market develops, but we are pleased with the progress that we have made. In terms of other non-Regulated Businesses that we have in the group, when we acquired SES Water, there were some small non-Regulated Businesses that we are working through. Some of those we have decided not to continue with as activities. We are really pleased with the business-to-business Retail Market, so that is where our focus is. Second question was on Thames .
That's an interesting question today, given the announcement with the preferred bidder KKR announcing that they are not looking at that in the same way. What do I think about Thames? I think hard for me to comment on because it's obviously a different business. Very easy for me to comment on because it's part of the water sector, and we all want to make sure we've got a good functioning Water Sector with really successful businesses that are part of it. I think obviously there's a lot of focus on Thames, a lot of work for them to do, I am sure. I'm sure there'll be twists and turns in the story of ownership that comes next. Seeing some of the work that the Thames teams do, they do obviously a brilliant job day to day with what they have to deliver.
In terms of ownership and where that goes, I'm sure there'll be twists and turns with that. Does it impact us? I think it impacts the sector in terms of uncertainty. We will obviously await what comes next. I know with the funding work that we have been doing this year, there are obviously lots of questions around the stability of the sector and of business going forwards, which is why I'm really pleased with the cutting-edge review and the interim findings that have come out today. I've had a quick look at those. I haven't had time to sit down and go through every line. I've had a quick look at those and really welcome the report. I'm sure there'll be meaningful reform.
One of the key points that the cutting-edge review is looking at is how to encourage and ensure that there are Investors and Investment in the sector because it's much needed. We're on the precipice of GBP 100 billion investment over the next five years, which is record. We do need investors to be there. Thames specifically, I can't really comment, but does it affect the sector? It's the largest supplier, so inevitably.
Hi, Dominic Nash from Barclays. Thank you for the presentation. A couple of questions from me, please. Firstly, following up on the cutting-edge review, would you mind giving us some sort of color as to the supervisory model for regulation that I think he's potentially proposing, which is clearly going down a more company-specific rather than a sector-wide sort of regulatory model and how you think that would help or hinder yourself?
Secondly, could you give us some sort of update on the dry, hot weather that we have had, which is quite nice, frankly, going from two years of sort of record rain to record drought? Could you work through us? Because you said you are ODI neutral or expecting to be ODI neutral in the following 12 months. Could you go through where the pluses and minuses will come through from this flip from being wet to dry and also the impact on sort of revenues and costs? Like I presume more people will flock to Cornwall and you are going to have more usage and/or you might have hosepipe ban although you say you are not, etc., etc. Would you just mind giving us some color on that one, please? Thank you.
Of course. Okay, just start with cutting-edge. Now, as I said, I haven't had the opportunity to look in detail at what was announced this morning, and I will obviously be looking at that as soon as we finish here. In terms of the supervisory model, what do I think that will mean? To be quite honest, very much, and I'm sure with the quick look through that I had, there is still comparative assessment that's going to happen. I'm sure that will be part of anything that happens in this sector going forwards. The supervisory part, in terms of the specifics on a company-by-company perspective, we will obviously have to work through and understand, but it would be great to have more of an oversight, in-depth review, and conversations with our regulators on an ongoing basis to understand the work that we're doing.
I think when I look at the regime and I look at some of those stats, facts, and figures and the EPA is one of those, we have got a headline star rating, and then you have to look underneath to see exactly what is going on because the headline is just one aspect to it. It would be great to take people through that and to understand the specifics for our regions that we serve and how we perform against that. Like I said, in terms of the cutting-edge review, really welcome the report that has come out. I think there will be meaningful reform from what I have scanned through and had a look at. For an efficient, robust water company like ourselves, I am really looking forward to what comes next.
Sorry, could I just follow up on something you just said there on the EPA?
Do you think that the EPA is going through consultation at the moment as well, isn't it? Do you think that that's going to give you a little bit more wriggle room on your EPA score, or do you think that's going to be quite inflexible as well? Could that be more of a flexible sort of company-by-company issue?
You're absolutely right, Dominic. Since it's out for consultation, it's not concluded yet. Do not know is the answer. I know what we've submitted in terms of our thoughts, but I do not know where that's going to land because obviously it has not landed yet. This point around meaningful engagement with regulators, I mean, we have obviously robust, good relationships with our regulators. It's been part of the regulated business. That's what you want to have.
I think having something that allows us to unpack our performance in a way that takes account of the specifics for our region will be really useful. I do not know where the EPA is going to land yet because it has not concluded. I know what we have put forward, but we will see where it lands. You asked about dry, hot weather, what that means and what that means operationally. I think we have probably not got a couple of hours, but I will give you a very good pitch. If I think about the, we have got David, who is MD of the Water Business here. I am sure he can talk to you about this at length going forward. Yes, of course, the work we did from the 2022 drought, David came in at that point, has put us in a good position from a resource perspective.
Of course, when we get lots of visitors, but we're used to that in the regions that we have, we need to make sure that our networks and our treatment works are in a good position going into what will be a busy operational period, which obviously, again, we are on with. Obviously, depending on the, it's not necessarily for the networks heat for a long time. It's the change and variability in that. That is what we have to make sure that we are on top of. For the Clean Water Business , those are things that we will be thinking about.
For the Wastewater business, obviously Richard, who's MD of Wastewater, puts his feet up and thinks, "Great, it's not raining." He is obviously focused on making sure that we are looking after the network in such a way that when the rain and precipitation then does come, the network does not have any blockages or issues, which is why all those SIR depth monitors that we have put in, thousands of them, are really helpful so we can see what is going on in the network now. Obviously, Richard will be thinking about all the festivals that we have in our regions and how we make sure that the Wastewater Treat works are going to be able to cope with all those visitors that we have, which is a key part of the work that he does.
I think it's from a storm overflow perspective, as you imagine, given the weather, if you looked at the storm overflow spill rates that we've had so far in 2025, they are appreciably lower than we had in 2024. What is useful for us with that information is then to understand, because now we've got the monitors in, but we've had them since 2022, so all data is rich data for us. How is the network responding with these differences in weather patterns that we've got and where are the pinch points? Again, more useful data for us to use from a storm overflow perspective. Yes, the numbers for 2025 are a lot lower than they were for 2024.
Sorry, I've got it. Sarah Lester from Morgan Stanley, just actually building on Dom's ODI question.
Interested over the evolution of the five-year period, and I'm not being sneaky and trying to triangulate the 160 basis points of outperformance. More just interested in how you see that net neutral position evolving, any key metrics, face value, all of that. Dom's question about the EPA. Now, PR24 is not in scope of the Independent Water Commission, but if there are changes to the EPA, how does that impact the 30 basis points and that four-star criteria, or does it? I feel like the answer to that might be too early to say. Thank you.
I'll start with the last one first. I think until the consultation ends, we'll just have to see where that lands and then what that means. I think Ofwat has said, I'm saying this now, and I'm hoping that it is true.
I think Ofwat said that they will reflect when the EPA lands to see if that has an impact at all for the sector. Let's see where that lands and see the impact of that. I know for the EPA, what we have to do is get those pollution numbers down. I've always been focused on the absolute numbers for pollution with respect to the assessment and how that looks at the different numbers. We have to look at our absolute numbers and just get those eliminated. That is what Richard and the team is absolutely on with. That is just going to be our focus. I think if you get that delivered, it does not really matter, I am sure, what the assessment is, because you will have delivered a reduction and an elimination of those pollutions. I think that is what we have got to focus on doing.
We'll see where the EPA framework lands. In terms of the ODIs for K8 and how we see that changing from where we have been, I mean, obviously pollutions, we can see from the charts we've had some variable performance, but I think with the work that we've done and the initiatives that we've got in place and the incident reduction plan which has been in place, we have a really good cadence of what we think we're going to be able to do over the coming months and years. I think that will be slightly different for us going into K8 than K7. In fact, we ended this Regulatory Period in a better place than we did at the start for that measure. That's one of the measures that will change for us. We've got Internal Sewer Flooding that we touched on.
Obviously, we're doing well in that and we know we're going to be doing well in that again going forwards. We are really focused on Bathing Waters and again, have done well in that in this Regulatory Period and we've got more incentive for that going forward. In a way, the areas where we do perform and do well, we see those continuing to K8, those that have been a challenge for us like pollutions are getting into a better place. I think the makeup of the ODIs and where we take our benefit from, we have some real key metrics where we do well now that will continue to do well. Those where we have been needing to improve our performance, we are improving. That will lessen the impact.
Hey, thank you. It's Mark Freshney from UBS.
My first question for you, Laura, just on working capital. There seemed to be a big outflow this year. I think it was GBP 42 million in other receivables, GBP 31 million in payables. Is that, which is fairly large, is that one time or as the business ramps up or can we expect further working capital outflows in future years? My second question for you, Susan, and this is entirely unfair, but I'll ask it anyway. Almost five years ago to the day, your predecessor set a target that he knew he'd set for you, which is doubling the base return on equity. So 400 bps outperformance. You got half of it, but 400 bps came from financing, which is a lot of which is high inflation. Then it was minus 200 on ODIs and totex.
You set, in January, you set another five-year target for this AMP, which was 190 bps , which takes you up to the seven. My question is that given past experience, given there is so much that is going to happen over the coming five years, how can you be sure that that target will be met? What is different about this review to last review? I am not saying we will get COVID and Storm Overflows again, but there will be something. I am just wondering why you needed to set the 190 bp s.
Let me start with the Working Capital. I think the biggest change in Working Capital we will see as we come into the next year will be contingent on the revenue position and making sure that as we increase tariffs, we keep up to speed in terms of recovery.
As Susan mentioned, we're in a really strong position on that in terms of debt. We started early to make sure that we're supporting customers through those bill changes and to avoid Bill Shocks. There will be a little bit of movement as we work through the year, given that we are looking at a 28% increase in bills from a South West Water perspective. Some of those other issues that you talk about in terms of working capital outflow would be one-offs rather than anything we'd expect to recur at this point. Really our focus is on managing that debt book, making sure we get that cash through and realize the benefit of that on a very timely basis.
Okay, thanks, Laura. Yeah, good question, Mark. How would I answer that?
I would say this has been an incredibly useful, if not challenging, five years where you're right, there have been lots of things we've had to face into as a sector and as a group. We've learned a lot and we've ended that Regulatory Period, you're right, not delivering on the double, but we have delivered on performance and we have had some outperformance. That outperformance rate, we are running into K8. Where we've landed is where we're pretty much forecasting we're going to be going forwards. Why do we have confidence in that? As I said, we've been tested. We understand the business and our networks in a way that we did not understand them five years ago, but we understand them now. We have brilliant people who are focused on delivering against those targets that we put forward into the business plan and were accepted.
I think we're in a good place. Now, obviously, we'll see what comes out from the Cunliffe review and if that has any structural changes, not that I could particularly see that in the headlines today, who knows? We're really focused on delivery. We're focused on making sure that there is outperformance. When we get outperformance, obviously that gets shared with our customers as well as our investors. It is absolutely the right thing to do. As I say, we end this Regulatory Period at a run rate of outperformance, around about 190 bps . I think that is the run rate that we've set ourselves for K8. Having all that test and all that challenge made the investment, I think we're in a good place for it.
Thank you.
Thanks very much. It's Jenny Ping from Citi.
Just following on from the last question, and this is probably one for Laura. I'm looking at page 37 of your presentation where you highlight the hedging strategy and how much of your debt book, your ability to lock in in terms of outperformance. Just going back to the previous question, what confidence can you give us out of the targeted ROE that you've already locked in via your debt book? Just some sense of that would be helpful to give the market some confidence. And then one for Susan, obviously you talked about M&A as a core part of the group strategy. Can I just check that you're pretty much done now? Is it all about integration or are you looking at other things? Just I think I know what the answer is, but I just want to double check.
Yeah, let me start on that financing outperformance.
We obviously look at it as we go through the period and as we get any determinations in terms of where do we hedge and how do we make sure that we're locking in outperformance. As we finish the 2024-2025 year, we had a number of hedges drop off from the past period. That includes some of the hedges we put in place as inflation was going up, which have given us benefit to lock in a level which on the index-linked portfolio as well. As we move ahead into K8, we have about GBP 500,000,000 of our debt book fixed at rates that provide a level of outperformance and come in under that level. We have a fixed index-linked portfolio in addition to that. Our overall position, I think on a growth basis, we have about 18% on a floating rate position.
A little bit more of that comes through as some of the final swaps come off from last AMP in this Financial Yea r. That is where there will be an opportunity to look at, do we want to lock in anything further? With the EMTM program and the move to more benchmark-sized transactions, it is likely that quite a lot of the debt that we raise will be on a more fixed basis. We do then look at whether we want to do anything in terms of refloating that and so on. We will look at that as we move forward depending on interest rate movements and so on. Sorry, if I can push you, is it a third, a half? Can you give us a ballpark sense of the basis points that you have already locked in that is from your debt book? We have not given that, have we?
We haven't given that number yet. Yeah, we'll think about how we, I mean, what we've always said about performance is when we start delivering, we will then start reporting on what we've done and how we've delivered. When we come for the half-year results, Jenny, we'll give an update as to what that's looking like. We haven't given that as a forecast. Your question around M&A, Jenny. I do believe that you get benefit both for investors, shareholders, and customers from the acquisitions that we've made. The slide that I put up for the acquisitions that we've had in the past, customers have really benefited from the investments that have been made, which standalone Balance Sheet s for those small water-owned companies would never have supported. The growth in RCV that comes from that means investors do benefit going forwards.
We make efficiencies by bringing obviously organizations together. I do think they make sense. Do we actively look in that sense? Do I have a list of opportunities that we are looking at? No, of course I do not. We look at opportunities as and when they arise to see if they make sense. We are focused on delivering what is a really large investment program over the next five years. Given our stated strategy of looking at both organic and acquisitive, if an opportunity came along that made sense, then of course, as we have done in the past, we always look at whether it is an opportunity for customers, an opportunity for investors. We have not changed our strategy, but you are absolutely right. We have a big investment program to deliver on, which we are busy delivering on right now.
We are focused on making sure that we have our targets and our outcomes firmly in the sights of the teams who are delivering against them.
Good. I think that is it from everybody. Thank you so much for your time this morning. Great to see you all and hopefully see you in one of our regions soon. Thank you.