 The company says the cuts are necessary to meet Ofwat targets |
One hundred people are to lose their jobs at South West Water (SWW). The company says the need for staff cuts is a direct result of last week's Ofwat announcement about water bills.
Although sharp rises in bills were allowed, SWW says it will have to tighten its belt to meet targets set by the regulator.
The company says the 100 jobs will be lost from the 1,400 workforce over the next five years and should be achieved without compulsory redundancies.
Costly maintenance
Pennon, SWW's parent company, has also announced an 11% rise in profits, although much of the growth came from activities unconnected with water.
Ofwat's announcement last week means the region's water customers will have the highest average bill by 2009-10 - �444 per year, up from the current �357.
The increase is needed to maintain pipes, sewers and treatment works.
There are also 3,000 schemes to improve rivers and coastal waters and money needs to be spent on alleviating internal flooding from overloaded sewers.
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