Utility Week

10 | 3RD - 9TH AUGUST 2018 | UTILITY WEEK Interview the operation. Northern Rail – which oper- ates one of the largest transport networks in the UK – turned over £135 million in 2016/17. Northumbrian Water is a decidedly bigger company, whose turnover was £835 million in 2017/18. A self-confessed "greenie" with a degree in geography, Mottram was attracted to the company's environmental and sustainability ambitions, its ethical and values-driven stance, and its commit- ment to customer service. "The values and behaviours and everything that this company stood for, I thought: this is somewhere I'll thrive, and that's been the truth ever since. I think I've done a reasonably decent job of it. We've been pretty successful, and I'm pleased with what I've done." Her summation doesn't take into consideration the most recent assessment from the Environment Agency that emerged aer our interview, ranking Northumbrian as one of the worst performers. But more on that later. However, that aside, there has been plenty to shout about. Northumbrian came joint top with Wessex and Portsmouth in regulator Ofwat's 2016/17 service incen- tive mechanism (SIM) league table, with a score of 88, against an industry average of 84. Mottram says she is also pleased with the company's net promoter score, which was 44 in 2017/18 – the highest in the water sector (anything over 0 is considered "good", and 50+ is considered "excellent"). The company was also rated top for customer satisfaction in the Consumer Council for Water's Water Matters survey, published aer our interview. On Northumbrian's website, Mottram lists her strengths as "leadership, corporate overview, infrastruc- ture and customer service". Her first few months at North- umbrian proved this to be the case. "I always remember the first few months as being very collaborative," she says. "I organised a number of meetings and workshops around what our plan might look like going forward." It was out of these workshops that the company's vision rose: to be the "national leader in sustainable water and wastewater services". And, as the stats show, it is certainly on the way. Northumbrian was one of a few companies held up as exemplars in a report by Ofwat into the freeze-thaw incident, in which thousands of customers across the country found themselves off water supply during the infamous "Beast from the East". During the incident, just 0.1 per cent of customers in the Northumbrian region and 0.63 per cent in Essex and Suffolk experienced supply interruptions. Despite its many achievements, including being named Utility of the Year at the 2017 Utility Week Awards, Mottram insists Northumbrian isn't resting on its laurels. "We're never complacent, we're not at all arrogant – quite the opposite actually, we're sometimes probably too modest." And, she says, there is still much more to be done to improve performance in certain areas. "We would prob- ably claim to be one of the top companies," emphasising the "one". "We were top at SIM [in 2016/17], but across the board, there's no company that's good at absolutely everything, everyone's got strengths and weaknesses." According to Northumbrian's annual performance report, its score dropped slightly in the latest SIM to 86.4 in 2017/18 – although official figures have yet to be released by Ofwat. And, as mentioned earlier, there was that less than positive news a few days aer our interview that Northumbrian Water had been ranked one of the worst companies for environmental performance in 2017 by the Environment Agency. The company scored worst for discharge permit compliance (96 per cent). At the time, wastewater director Richard Warneford insisted that, six months into 2018, with zero compliance failures, the company is "confident in turning previous issues around" and is pushing for 100 per cent discharge permit compliance. "We have an ambitious approach to achieving our goals and will be aiming for a four-star rating in 2018," he said. The company declined to comment further for this interview. However, it did announce, at its Innovation Festival, a £2 million investment in its waterways as part of plans to improve the environment. "We would put ourselves in the top three, but the bar on everything has gone up," says Mottram. "What would have been leading performance when I came to North- umbrian Water just wouldn't pass now." Becoming the best will be hard work, as benchmarks become broader and PR19 intensifies the focus on com- pany performance. "The bar is getting higher, and while I definitely wouldn't say that the PR19 process or the regulatory process is driving us – we run the company for our customers, communities and stakeholders – it does cause you to reflect a little bit." And how are Northumbrian's PR19 plans going? "Very well," says Mottram. Like all of the water companies, it is in the thick of writing its business plan ready for the looming deadline for submission of 3 September. One thing that's embedded in Ofwat's methodology for PR19 is communication and conversation with cus- tomers. Mottram claims this is something Northumbrian has been doing for years, but says the regulatory process focuses the mind, as it means having to document it in an "Ofwat-friendly" way. So far, she is pleased with the outcomes of conversations with customers, which have been "very reinforcing". "It proves to us that we are very well-connected with our customers, and we do know what we're doing and we're not stupid," she says. Asked which category she hopes the company will be placed in, Mottram says she is aiming for exceptional – perhaps unsurprising for a woman who has won so many awards, including Rail Business Manager of the Year, an OBE for services to the rail industry and a CBE for services to the water industry. "We're an ambitious company, we're a good company, so I think we should aim for the very highest level. I'm not at all arrogant, I don't want Ofwat to go: 'don't get too carried away with yourself ', that's not what it's about, but you want it for your people and you want it for your customers that you know you've done the very best job that can be done." What is Mottram's vision for the future of the water sector? That the country will be able to rely on the sector for a resilient and reliable supply of water? "I was really pleased when the water sector did a national water resource management plan because I thought that was really important," she says. "We need to think long term – there's a combination of developing water resources but also demand management as well. "I hope the industry, partly in this business planning process and partly beyond, can assure the country that it's got resilience in hand and that the country shouldn't worry. With proper planning we can get that right, efficient and affordable." "What would have been leading performance when I came to Northumbrian Water just wouldn't pass now"

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