Bosses at Bradford-based Yorkshire Water will this year undertake the company’s biggest ever customer consultation exercise to find out what consumers’ priorities are and how much they are prepared to pay.

As the company revealed a strong financial performance in the year to March 31, chairman Kevin Whiteman said it will explain its six strategic objectives to millions of people in a bid to win backing as it prepares its submission for the 2014 Ofwat price review.

This year, Yorkshire Water customers saw annual bills rise by 3.3 per cent, or £12, to an average of £368 per household.

Mr Whiteman said: “We believe it is essential that our plan has customer support and we have already invested a significant amount of time in gauging public opinion on what our future priorities should be and how much they are prepared to pay for the levels of service they require of us.

“This work is guided and informed by the independent Customer Challenge Group whose role is to ensure that customers’ views are taken into account in developing the plan.

“In 2013-14 we plan to widen out this engagement to the community of Yorkshire as a whole by carrying out our largest ever customer engagement exercise. We have made excellent progress in preparing for the price review and aim to continue our engagement with customers throughout the summer.”

Yorkshire Water’s results for 2012 show an operating profit before exceptional items of £331.5 million, against £312.9million the previous year. Turnover increased to £936.2million from £893.6million. Capital expenditure was lower at £385.7million, against £404.3million in 2011-12.

Mr Whiteman said: “These preliminary results reflect good overall business performance.

“Over the past year we have kept operating costs under control, delivered yet another strong set of financial results and seen significant improvements in our operational performance. We have also made progress on reinvestment initiatives.”

Customers were benefiting from investment in the region’s water supply, which had enabled Yorkshire Water to avoid water rationing during the drought of early 2012.

He said: “Not only did the flexibility of our regional grid system ensure that public water supplies were unaffected, we were also able to utilise it to protect the environment.”

Yorkshire Water achieved its lowest ever level of leakage and exceeded its regulatory targets. After a poor start, a more targeted and pro-active approach improved pollution prevention, in spite of one of the wettest summers on record causing widespread surface water and flooding. The company plans to further improve pollution control measures.