Water and sewage company Severn Trent has seen revenue fall by £22 million after a 'challenging' six months.

In its latest results announcement, the company - whose headquarters are in Coventry - revealed that for the half year to September 30, group turnover fell 2.5 per cent to £887.6m from £910m in 2019; while pre-tax profit fell by more than 20 per cent to £224.6m.

The company - which serves millions of customers across the Midlands - said that £33m of the reduced revenue was largely driven by Covid-19 and lower consumption from commercial customers.

But this was slightly offset by the fact that people were using more water to wash their hands regularly, as well as warm weather during the summer.

Severn Trent bosses expect to see revenue fall by around £50-£85m for the full year, taking into the account the impacts of the pandemic.

Liv Garfield, Chief Executive Severn Trent Plc, said that, despite the challenges the company has faced it has made an 'excellent' start to the year.

She added: "The last six months have been challenging for everyone and I am grateful to our Severn Trent people, whether they've been in a treatment works, in an office, working from home, or out on the streets carrying out essential work, for the dedication, resilience and wonderful can-do spirit they have shown. It's these qualities which have enabled us to provide our customers with a great service in such difficult circumstances.

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"I'm incredibly proud of what we've achieved, whether it's getting the top environmental performance grade once again from the Environment Agency, improving services for our customers, increasing our investment to help the country build back better, or taking a leading role in the Kickstart Scheme.

"We've done all of that while striving to do the right thing for all of our stakeholders, including mental health programmes, our support schemes for vulnerable customers, and through our £1 million emergency COVID-19 fund."