No sting from Severn Trent boss Wray

I've had my preconceptions of a prominent business leader shattered this evening.

Given the bad press Severn Trent has received in recent years, I'd been expecting chief executive Tony Wray to be a difficult character to interview.

I spoke to Mr Wray before he gave a lecture at De Montfort University on how to get people to use water more sparingly.

Keen to see if I could fluster or trip him up, I asked him exactly what he did to save water. But instead what I got was a blokish honesty almost never expressed publicly by bosses of major companies.

The 48-year-old said he and his family did their bit, but were no means environmentally-friendly "zealots". He said he was leading by example because he had introduced a few water-saving devices to his "normal house", the kind of thing he would like to see all his customers do.

This was a charming and interesting man proud of his Leicester roots and the fact he still lives in the county. Not surprisingly, he had a lot to say about how he would like to see the water industry develop in the future, including the creation of more competition.

Whether or not he was trying to ingratiate himself to his local newspaper - which he said his mum reads regularly - and he is normally a nightmare to interview, I don't know. But it was a refreshing encounter which left me pleasantly surprised.

See what you think by reading my interview with Mr Wray in the Business supplement on Tuesday. There is also likely to be a story in the main part of the Leicester Mercury in the next few days.

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UPDATE: 9.15am: October 30, 2009

Today's front page of the Leicester Mercury is not the story Mr Wray and I were anticipating on Wednesday evening.

A few hours after the interview a pipe bust near to Fosse Park shopping centre, leaving 3,000 homes in the area with low water pressure or no supplies at all.

The irony is that Severn Trent's record on water leakage - they lost 490 million litres per day in 2007/08 - formed a major part of our conversation. Mr Wray argued there was really nothing the company could do to prevent it happening.

A small part of the interview is due to appear in tomorrow's Mercury, with an extended piece in the Business supplement on Tuesday. Don't miss them.