Anglian Water: Will Pay Tax After Investments

12 November 2012, 06:00

Anglian Water has told Heart a £2bn investment in its' infrastructure is the reason why they have deferred payment of this year's corporation tax (tax on profits).

On Sunday, the Observer newspager alleged three water firms including Anglian hadn't paid its' dues to the taxman.

The Observer claimed Anglian and one other company of not paying corporation tax on the profits made from their utility businesses and another firm of keeping payments to the Revenue in the low millions.

The newspaper revealed the company's  cashflow statement for 2012 showed no corporation tax on its regulated water business in the financial year ending in March. The company paid £500,000 corporation tax in the previous year and £1.4m the year before.

Anglian Water serves 6-million customers in Cambridgeshire and across the east of England and is, geographically, the largest water and sewerage company in England and Wales.

Anglian supplies almost 1.2 billion litres of water every day to 1.96 million homes, 125,503 businesses and operate and maintain 23,529 miles of water mains.

Responding to the claims, Anglian Water have told Heart: "The media reports about our tax liabilities are wrong.  We are spending £2.3 billion on the region's water infrastructure between 2010 and 2015, which helps create and secure jobs as well as support economic growth. We will pay our tax on this in full, but the UK government allows us to defer the payment for a short period to encourage us to invest as much as we can afford at such an important time for the economy.

As part of the way we are regulated, any temporary tax benefits we do get from deferring this payment are passed on to our customers. But to repeat, we will pay our tax bill in full as part of our continuing commitment to paying our way, and to being a responsible UK company."