LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - United Utilities forecast lower profits for the half year as it felt the impact of lower revenue and slightly higher renewables spending.
The water utility said group revenue was expected to decline 5% in the in the six months to September 30 reflecting regulatory revenue changes and lower consumption from businesses as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, partly offset by higher usage from households.

The British company said that its performance remains on track against the latest five year asset management period regulatory plan and it continued to target net outcome delivery incentive, or ODI, outperformance for fiscal 2021.

"Cash collection from our household customer base has been consistent with the targets that we set before the Covid-19 pandemic," the company said on Thursday in a trading update.

"Although we anticipate bad debt may increase as government support schemes come to an end, we secured early agreement during the pandemic to extend our social tariff and this, combined with our extensive range of financial assistance schemes, underpins our confidence in the adequacy of the provision we made at the March 2020 year end."

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