‘Pee, paper and poo” is the alliterative if scatalogical slogan that Pennon dinned into the heads of 5,000 West Country schoolchildren last year, to make them more mindful of their environmental responsibilities. And, by teaching them not to put anything else down the loo, they will conveniently be helping to control the group’s water-treatment costs.
Such marriages of virtue and hard-headed business are, sadly, all too rare at the company, which is facing headwinds from inflation and higher interest rates for the year ending next March. Investors were unimpressed by yesterday’s annual results, clipping 28p, or 2.7 per cent, off the shares at £10.01. They have fallen from £13.12 since last August, despite the useful £425 million acquisition of Bristol Water in June 2021, mainly