11th Jul 2025 12:26
(Alliance News) - Pennon Group PLC on Friday said Chief Executive Officer Susan Davy has decided to retire.
The Exeter, England-based water utility company said Davy will continue as chief executive while it looks for a successor to ensure a "smooth and orderly" transition.
Davy was appointed CEO in July 2020, having served on the board as chief financial officer since 2015. Davy has spent 18 years at Pennon and close to 30 years in the water sector, the company noted.
Davy commented: "It has been an honour to serve as chief executive officer of Pennon. Running a water company is always interesting, often challenging, but totally fulfilling.
"The approval of our investment plans by Ofwat made this a natural juncture to retire from Pennon. This has been my life for the past 30 years, and now it's right I hand this huge responsibility to the next generation of leaders."
Chair David Sproul said: "Susan has been a passionate supporter of the sector over many years and has led Pennon through its transition to focus on UK water.
"The board and I are incredibly grateful to Susan for her unwavering leadership, as she has navigated the group through some challenging external headwinds to emerge stronger and more resilient as we look ahead to the next regulatory period."
On Thursday, Pennon said its South West Water business will pay GBP24 million to be delivered between now and 2030, including GBP20 million to speed up investment to cut the number of spills at environmentally sensitive locations or within a focused community.
A further GBP2 million will be for customers to tackle sewer misuse and mis-connections to address environmental pollution.
Another GBP2 million will be for a Nature Recovery Fund to support environmental groups to deliver measurable environmental gains.
Pennon said South West Water "has stepped up and acknowledged what has gone wrong and how it will put things right".
Pollution incidents at South West Water – which serves about 1.8 million customers in Cornwall, Devon and parts of Somerset and Dorset – had soared by 80% to 194 between 2023 and 2024.
Pennon was fined GBP2.2 million in 2023 for illegal sewage spills spanning four years across Devon and Cornwall.
In February 2025, Davy apologised to customers over pollution incidents, including the "devastating" parasite outbreak in Devon.
On Tuesday, the water watchdog in England was handed its largest-ever budget for tackling pollution, the UK government had said.
The Environment Agency, which inspects and prosecutes water firms over environmental damage, will receive a cash injection of more than GBP189 million this financial year, running to April 2026.
This is up from GBP161 million for fiscal 2025, GBP115 million for for fiscal 2024 and GBP114 million for fiscal 2023, according to government figures.
Shares in Pennon were down 0.4% at 489.27 pence in London on Friday afternoon.
By Michael Hennessey, Alliance News reporter
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