Profits are up for Jersey Water
JERSEY Water recorded profits of more than £4 million last year – a 1.3 per cent increase on 2008.
And the States – the biggest shareholder in the company – is now in line to receive a £1.95 million dividend payout.
Jersey Water released the figures just months after announcing that every property in Jersey will be fitted with a meter within the next five years as part of a major water saving strategy. The company also announced that it was freezing tariffs for 2010.
Kevin Keen, chairman of Jersey Water, said: ‘In spite of a very challenging year we are pleased to have been able to announce a freezing of tariffs for 2010 for our customers, an increase in dividends for our shareholders and continuing investment in our infrastructure.’
Article posted on 1st May, 2010 - 2.57pm
16 Article Comments
Just watch those profits rise once the water meters are installed!
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Is that because of the staff the laid off??
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every property in Jersey will be fitted with a meter within the next five years as part of a major water saving strategy”
And any increase in profits will be purely coincidental. How do we need to save water with an extra resovoir ( Queens Valley ) and no tourists. And the stranglehold increases! Let me guess, rich people in big houses will pay less for their water.
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What a heart warming story. I’m so glad a monopoly supplier has survived a ‘challenging’ year and still managed to increase shareholder dividends. Good to know my water rates are helping to line someone else’s pocket. By the time they fit meters I will be positively hysterical!!
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Warer saving strategy? This is all about money in my book. When water meters are introduced just watch the profits soar. I think it is appalling that a utility that is essential to life is partially in private hands. Time for the company to be 100% nationalised as far as I am concerned. So the shareholders should be laughing all the way to the bank then when workers are having pay freezes, pay cuts, or losing their jobs.
MLP in my opinion Queen’s valley was needed to service all the extra people we have in Jersey now plus allow for more to come in. Demand has to be high for properties or else prices would fall and developers profits would be hit wouldn’t they?
I’m waiting for the states to try and meter people who have their own water supplies, on the grounds of water conservation as well. Another method to extract more taxes from the people IMHO.
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Adrian I believe this is a first, we agree on something. I accept that flooding Queens Valley was a prudent step to ensure future water supplies. Forcing everyone to be metered is a control measure which gives JNWW total power over supply and pricing. I don’t object to the user pays principle but to have one supplier having total control over a utility essential for life is not a good thing. Prices will go up and we’ll have no choice but to pay, we can hardly buy our water over the internet can we.
So wages freeze, taxes go up, water is metered and inevitably goes up in price, GST increases, bend over and say aah.
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Adrian:
‘When water meters are introduced just watch the profits soar.’
I think we can assume that they will want to carry on taking the same amount or more, so the metered price is bound to rise.
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The new Water meters might be cost effective to the Waterworks Company but they are certainly not cost effective to the householder. The quarterly bills would appear to be much more expensive with the newly fitted meters.
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Profits up ..men laid off…bonuses for the bosses….WTF…? any fool could make a profit at Waterworks..no one else sells it…! so the gaffers have awarded them selves more money..based on what may we ask….? what did they do for it..no competition had to be fought,no sales campaign waged …so come on what for….?
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We’re on metered water and believe me we daren’t drink the stuff its so expensive!! Yes i jest, but truly we got the worst lawn in the land, we all share the bath water, we never let the tap run when brushing teeth, and toilet only flushed when neccessary! and when i tell people what our water bill is they are flabbergasted!!! we have hed the waterboard out to check we have no problems so it has to be down to metered water!? another stealth tax!!
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No. 10 Shaun – Have a word with the Health Department who will negotiate a discounted rate with the Waterworks Company or you. It is not right that you all should share a bath.
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Hey 11, i don’t really care so much about bath sharing, in fact its not such a bad idea for us all, after all its only soap n water, BUT we only ever did this more-so because we’re on metered water, and we are still worse off than before!! i don’t give a hoot about our grass, nor the fact i have to turn the tap on and off every time i run my toothbrush under it! i don’t mind if the toilet waters always yellow, lol… its just the FACT we do all this and still have a bill double than what it ever was!!
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Ok let’s start this comment by saying that in 2008 20 staff lost their jobs at Jersey Water and were made redundant just before Christmas.
The timing of this announcement was as distasteful as it is unnecessary. And these latest statistics are a clear indication that these job loses were totally unnecessary and profit lead. I have stated many times before that the privatising or incorporating essential public services is not in the public’s interest and only serves the fat cats that preside over them, the share holders, and non executive directors. Profit over people every time.
This has definitely been proved by the latest profit announcement by Jersey Water as it increased its profit for 2009 by 1.3 per cent to over £4 million last year.
And here are the Facts:
• Equity dividends
Dividends paid in 2009 totalled £1,444,000, an increase of 15% over dividends of £1,256,000 in 2008. A final dividend for 2009 of £2.14 is proposed bringing the dividend for 2009 to £1,541,000, an increase over the dividends for 2008 of 10%. In addition, a special dividend of £2.28 per ordinary and ‘A’ ordinary shares is proposed totalling £1,101,000.
Now I don’t know about you… but I would be a bit upset to say the least if I had just lost my job last year and was still unemployed and saw dividends paid out that far exceed the cost of living and the rate of inflation (latest fig 3.2%).
I still believe that it is scandalous that a company that is 74% states owned allowed the dumping of staff in favour of profit, private contractors and increased dividends for share holders. Howard Snowden and Kevin Keen to name a few.
How can the directors of Jersey Water sleep at night knowing they earned massive bonuses in 2009 and need not have implemented these redundancies? The States of Jersey earned £1.95 million in dividend pay out for 2009 which is good for the taxpaying public… that’s great… but at what price to our society?
Yes we should expect to see a profit returned back to our government but when we see the likes of Steven Izzat at WEB earning in the region of £287K a year whilst making a 600k loss and still getting a massive bonus it cancels out the profit of Jersey Water by a million pounds…. If you get my drift.
Senator Ozouf has ministerial responsibility for the utility company and has stated in the press that he has full confidence in the chairman and board. Which incidentally includes long time critic of the states Kevin Keen. The fact that the directors have given themselves huge pay rises in the last couple of years and then sacked staff to pay for it is disgraceful.
Howard Snow is earning £124,000 (plus £9000 pension)which is up on 2008’s of £116k. With over £4 million in profits the redundancies that were made were totally unnecessary and should have been avoided at all costs.
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No. 12 Shaun – are you talking about a hot-tub or a standard sized bathroom bath?
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It’s interesting that Jersey Water and Jersey Electricity are both part States and part privately owned, and neither of them is regulated by the JCRA. Jersey Gas is 100% privately owned, and also is not regulated by the JCRA.
Jersey Telecom and Jersey Post, both 100% owned by the states and therefore not making any individual or private shareholders money are heavily regulated, and in my opinion, have not been fairly treated considering the market size in Jersey.
We pay far too much for our electricity and water, and both are monopolies. This must change!
I think you will find former states members on the boards of the JEC and Jersey Water. This stinks!
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It is surprising that when we have a predicted water shortage more money is not being spent by the only water company in Jersey on such technologies as grey water recycling and the reduction of volumes of toilet water flushing for example.
Many local industries are heavily dependent on water a water shortage which becomes a crisis because of a lack of investment.
The water metering needs to be met by a decrease in water volume use age by households or it is just s way of cranking up profits.
There is a system where each person in a household is allocated a volume of water at a reduced price water above this volume is charged at a premium.
This is a fair way to price what is an essential element of life.
The very idea that high volume users should pay less per unit is abhorrent.
If you can pay less for the water you use to water your lawn than I pay for the water I drink there is something wrong with the system.
In short the price needs to be incremental based on the amount of people living in a home and the amount of water used.
If you are the only person living in a house with a pool your litre of water costs a lot more than if you are a family without a garden.
Of course this will not happen….
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