United Utilities secures £500m loan
UNITED UTILITIES has taken a £500m loan from the European Investment Bank to support investment across its North West facilities.
The 18 year loan from Europe’s long-term lending institution will be used to finance improvements to the region’s water and wastewater networks as part of United Utilities’ £3.5bn capital investment programme for the 2015 to 2020 regulatory period.
As the North West’s water and wastewater company, United Utilities serves 7 million domestic and 200,000 business customers.
Local schemes being paid for with the loan include the proposed pipeline to link West Cumbria to Thirlmere and the rest of the regional water network; work in Blackpool to increase the capacity of the sewer network and reduce the impact of storm overflows on bathing waters; and a scheme to upgrade and replace half of the treatment process at the company’s largest wastewater treatment works at Davyhulme. There will also be capital investment in customer water meters.
The first £250m of the new loan was signed earlier this week and the second half is expected to be signed as the United Utilities capital investment programme progresses.
Russ Houlden, chief financial officer at United Utilities, said: “In 2015-20 we are delivering an investment programme of around £3.5bn for the benefit of customers and the environment and to improve our ability to cope with climate change.
“We aim to do this at the lowest sustainable cost possible in order to keep bills down and this low cost funding from the EIB helps us to give our customers excellent value for the bills they pay.”
The European Investment Bank is 16% owned by the UK government and is the largest lender to the UK water sector and has provided £2.25bn over the last 12 years to support investment by United Utilities.
