Cumbria and Lancashire's water supplier United Utilities Group has said trading for the first half of 2017 has been "in line" with expectations.

The firm, which is based in Warrington, Cheshire, and supplies the entire north west of England, highlighted the investment it had made in is business and praised this for helping to boost efficiency.

Revenue in the six months to the end of September is expected to be about three per cent higher than at this time in 2016. Part of this will be offset by a joint venture called Water Plus, which it started in June with Severn Trent.

Revenue in the half-year was £853m, down from £857 last year. Operating profit for the first half if expected to be higher year-on-year.

In an announcement to the London Stock Exchange, a spokesman said: "This continued high level of investment will help deliver further improvements in operational performance and customer satisfaction and includes the first £20m of the additional investment in resilience for the benefit of customers as announced in our full year results.

"We continue to roll out further capability through our innovative systems thinking approach. This enables us to manage our entire network as a system using our integrated control centre, delivering operational improvements and cost savings across the regulatory period.

"Last year we successfully implemented a number of industry leading innovations in our customer service offering. We are on track to implement further initiatives this year, harnessing the opportunity for co-design with customers where appropriate."