Anglian Water reservoirs are well stocked, AWG says

It also said it planned bigger shareholder payouts in coming years.

The company runs Anglian Water in east England and also owns the Morrison infrastructure services business.

The "good results" demonstrated "effective management in all parts of the group", said AWG's chief executive Jonson Cox.

In early 2005, regulator Ofwat allowed the water firm to increase bills by an average of �19 over the following five years.

Dividend up

AWG now says it plans to raise the annual dividend by 2% above the prevailing retail price index until March 2010.

The company said water resources were close to normal levels during the year, helped by leakage control, winter pumping to recharge reservoirs, and a high proportion of metered customers.

Meanwhile, reservoirs are at target levels, being 93% full on average, but AWG said ground water levels in parts of the drier southern area of the region were below average for the time of year.

Earlier this year the firm said it was to raise bills for 2006 by 2.4%.