Europe’s long-term lending institution, the European Investment Bank, has agreed a new GBP 530 million long-term loan to support Severn Trent’s five year investment programme. The European Investment Bank is owned by the 28 EU member states, including the UK government and is the largest lender to the UK water sector.
“The European Investment Bank is committed to supporting long-term investment in water infrastructure across the UK and around the world. The new support represents one of the largest ever loans by the EIB for investment in the UK water sector and is testimony to the hard work done by Severn Trent in recent years and their ambitious plans for the future.” said Jonathan Taylor, Vice President of the European Investment Bank.
Severn Trent provides drinking water and waste water treatment for more than 7.7 million people and 4.3 million homes and businesses across the Midlands and mid-Wales. The current five year regulatory price review period, running from 2015-2020, will see Severn Trent’s largest ever investment programme, totalling GBP 6.2 billion in real terms. Of this, the capital investment programme totals GBP 3.3 billion, which includes schemes such as the GBP 255 million Birmingham resilience project.
The new GBP 530 million loan is one of the largest ever loans agreed between the European Investment Bank and a UK water company. The European Investment Bank has provided more than GBP 2 billion for investment in water infrastructure across the Severn Trent region since 1978.
Last year the European Investment Bank provided a record GBP 6 billion for long-term investment in key infrastructure across the UK including support for new hospitals, better water and sewerage infrastructure, renewable energy and energy transmission and private sector investment.
