A rise in costs saw profits slashed at United Utilities during its latest financial year.
The Warrington-headquartered provider has posted pre-tax profits of £256.3m for the 12 months to the end of March 2023, down from the £439.9m it reported for the same period in the prior year.
United Utilities said the fall was driven by lower revenue and the inflationary impact on operating costs, in particular procurement of electricity and chemicals.
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The company's revenue dipped by 2.1% to £1.8bn in the year. It added that around £40m of the reduction will be recoverable in two years' time under the revenue control.
Chief executive Louise Beardmore said: "As the new CEO, it is an honour and privilege to lead United Utilities.
"I am very clear about our ambition to build a stronger, greener, healthier North West on behalf of customers, communities and the environment.
"Despite a challenging year of cost pressures, we have delivered our best ever performance on a range of measures that matter most to customers, including leakage, water quality and serious pollution incidents.
"To help ease cost of living pressures, we have provided financial support to over 330,000 customers so far this regulatory period and have continued to play a key role in the wider economy of the North West, supporting 22,000 jobs across the region.
"I understand and share concerns about the use of storm overflows and I am committed to respond to the challenges we face.
"We have already achieved a 39% reduction in reported activations since 2020, but we need to go faster and drive a step change in performance.
"We have won support from regulators and are able to make an early start on over £900m of investment.
"This will allow us to commence work now on one third of the overflows we are targeting in our AMP8 plans.
"In October we will be putting forward an ambitious plan for the next regulatory period, including our biggest environmental programme yet, targeting a significant improvement in storm overflow performance.
"It is clear that we need to invest in infrastructure, assets and our people to meet new environmental targets and deliver the further performance improvements customers and communities want to see.
"Along with all my colleagues, we are committed to delivering even better performance and we are looking forward to the opportunity to do so."
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