Subsidiary | |
Industry | Water |
Founded | 1989 |
Headquarters | Durham, UK |
Key people
|
Andrew Hunter, (chairman) Heidi Mottram OBE, (chief executive officer) |
Revenue | £704.7 million (2010) |
£275.8m (2010) | |
£122.9m (2010) | |
Parent | Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings |
Website | www.nwg.co.uk |
Northumbrian Water Group plc (NWG) is the holding company for several companies in the water supply, sewerage and waste water industries. NWG's largest subsidiary is Northumbrian Water Limited (NWL), which is one of ten companies in England and Wales that are regulated water supply and sewerage utilities. NWL is the principal water supplier in the north-east of England, where it trades as Northumbrian Water, and also supplies water to part of eastern England, as Essex and Suffolk Water. In 2011 it was acquired by Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings.
In 1974, the Northumbrian Water Authority (NWA), one of ten public sector regional water authorities created under the Water Act 1973, was formed and became responsible for sewerage and some water supply functions that had previously been split among over 80 local authorities and water undertakings. Water supply to more than half the region was left in the hands of three existing statutory water companies (SWC):
In 1988, the Newcastle & Gateshead and Sunderland & South Shields companies were acquired in two separate operations by Lyonnaise des Eaux et de l'Eclairage (Lyonnaise), a company listed on the Paris Bourse, for £39.1m and £35.9m respectively. In 1992, the Newcastle company was merged into the Sunderland company, which was renamed North East Water (NEW).
In 1988, Lyonnaise acquired two further SWCs, Essex Water Company and Suffolk Water Company (formerly East Anglian Water Company) and, in 1994, merged them to form Essex & Suffolk Water.
Under the Water Act 1989, as part of the UK Government's privatisation programme for the water industry, NWA's operations were transferred to a holding company, Northumbrian Water Group (NWG); the water and sewerage activities were vested in a subsidiary company, Northumbrian Water Limited (NWL), while three much smaller subsidiaries were set up to handle other activities, such as solid and liquid waste treatment and environmental consultancy. In November 1989, NWG was privatised, along with the other regional water companies established under the 1989 Act.