Financial outlook: The Board continues to expect that the Group will deliver FY17/18 trading performance in line with its expectations and guidance previously disclosed at the HY17/18 results presentation on 23rd November 2017. We also reaffirm that at least £50 million customer ODI(1)outperformance payments are expected to be earned this year.
Delivering sustainable performance for all stakeholders:
AMP6(2): We are focused on providing benefits to our customers, communities, colleagues and investors, and we have generated sector-leading outperformance payments on key customer ODIs and continue to do well year-to-date.
We have positive momentum on Waste, particularly on internal and external sewer flooding, category 3 pollutions and serious pollution incidents. We re-confirm that we will hit the AMP6 outperformance cap(3). On Water, we have had more supply interruptions than normal in the last quarter, but are encouraged by the reduction in water quality complaints, which were down 12% year on year. We confirm that we expect to earn at least £50 million customer ODI(1) outperformance payments across Waste and Water this year.
We continue to work hard on improving our SIM(4) scores. We also note that we have one of the sector-leading scores in CCW's(5) independent annual survey on what our customers think.
We have delivered material reductions in our cost of finance. Since our HY17/18 results announcement, a £400m fixed-rate sterling bond with a coupon of 6% matured and was refinanced in part with a £250m five-year sterling bond with a coupon of 1.625%. We continue to explore varied sources of finance to help positon us as an upper-quartile performer in AMP7.
AMP7(2): Ofwat announced its PR19(6) Final Methodology in December 2017, providing welcome clarity on upcoming plans. We expected a tough review, recently restructuring our wholesale business to improve operational effectiveness and our customers' experience. We are encouraged by the enhanced incentive regime, creating strong outperformance opportunities. We are positioning ourselves for continued success in AMP7.
To assist AMP7 planning, we have launched our largest ever customer engagement programme, including a community panel of 10,000 customers, a review of two million customer contacts and analysis of over seven million social media conversations. This helps us understand the core service improvements and wider social and environmental initiatives our customers expect, thereby underpinning future growth in our RCV(7).
Corporate social responsibility: We are conscious of Severn Trent's role in society through the impact on our community, the wider environment, and the importance of workplace diversity. Our work in the community delivers benefits through our extensive customer education and employee volunteering programmes. We are keen to play our part in supporting social mobility and we have a highly-rated apprentice programme. We have reported a gender pay gap of 2.4% and, while we have even further to go, we have made strong progress in supporting workplace diversity and gender pay equality. We have a strong record of environmental performance and through our renewable energy business we are on track to generate the equivalent of 50% of our energy needs by 2020.