Severn Trent and United Utilities: ‘no compulsory job losses’

Severn Trent Water and United Utilities (UU) have insisted that no compulsory job losses will occur as a result of their joint venture for business customers.

Speaking to Utility Week, Severn Trent head of finance and business planning, business services Stuart Howell, who will be chief financial officer of the new business, said: “There will be no compulsory redundancies on either side.”

The two water companies announced this morning that they would join forces for the non-household retail market, creating a joint venture (JV) to offer water and related services to business customers.

The office of the new business will be based in Stoke-on-Trent, which is roughly equidistant from Severn Trent’s offices in Birmingham and Coventry and UU’s office in Warrington.

UU business director Sue Amies-King, who will be chief executive of the new business, told Utility Week: “It will be a combined leadership team building on the strength of both organisations, and then from that we’ll create a new structure and we’re hoping that our employees who can travel will move from the Coventry and Birmingham sites and the Warrington site.

“For those who don’t feel that they can make the journey, they’ll be offered redeployment – we’ve got a very active redeployment approach in both businesses. And for those who don’t want either of those options, they’ll be eligible for voluntary severance.”

The agreement is subject to clearance from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), and Amies-King said: “We’re limited as to what we can do, pending the CMA progress. We’ve now made our submission, they’ve got 40 days to consider that and pass to phase one, that takes us to late April/early May, then they could either say ‘yes’ at that point, or they could say that they’re referring it for further consideration, which would involve phase two, which could then take until about August or September.”

However, the new management team of the JV are currently working on the creation of a new brand and Amies-King said it would be a “new, fresh brand with a new, fresh approach”. 

She added: “Clearly job number one will be to retain the customers we already have and look after those, and equally we’re going to be a grower in the market – we want to achieve growth and win business nationally”.

Combined, the companies currently hold 26 per cent of the market share across England and Scotland – in the form of around 400,000 businesses. They refused to comment on the JV’s target for growth.