Midlands and Wales water firm Severn Trent has reported a rise in earnings and funds to shareholders, while saying it ought to have acted sooner on sewage discharges.

Profits earlier than tax and curiosity reached £508.8m within the yr to the tip of March, up from £506.2m the yr earlier than.

Shareholder funds too are up and estimated to be value greater than £260m. A dividend for the yr of £1.06 per share has been proposed by Severn Trent, 4p extra per share than final yr.

It comes as the pinnacle of business physique UK Water final week apologised for not appearing shortly sufficient on sewage spills into UK rivers and seas and mentioned it might spend £10bn on the difficulty.

Please use Chrome browser for a extra accessible video participant

1:58

Customer payments can be elevated to fund that spending, Ruth Kelly instructed Sky News.

The apology by UK Water was not repeated by Severn Trent in its annual outcomes, however the firm mentioned the business ought to have given sewage "much more attention" and "acted faster".

Read extra:Why addressing sewage spills was not a precedence for the water businessWater companies to face limitless fines for pollutingWater companies apologise for sewage discharges

There have been a mean of 18 sewage discharges per overflow sewer a yr, the report mentioned, down from a mean of 25 discharges final yr. Severn Trent's web site says it has roughly 2,400 overflow sewers, which means there have been roughly 43,200 discharges within the yr.

According to the Environmental Agency, 301,091 sewage spills have been recorded final yr - 824 a day on common - from all 10 water and sewerage firms in England. It's a discount from 2021 when there have been a mean of 1,020 a day. But the drop got here because of "dry weather, not water company action", the company mentioned.

Severn Trent government funds for 2023 usually are not identified at current as the administrators' remuneration report has not but been printed. Last yr chief government Liv Garfield obtained a £3.9m package deal, making her the best paid government within the water sector.

Content Source: information.sky.com