Yorkshire Water set to embark on largest ever environmental investment

Yorkshire Water is set to deliver its largest ever environmental investment between 2025 and 2030, with £8.3bn to be spent across the region to improve services for customers and upgrade infrastructure. 

The planned investment, which was approved by Ofwat in December, will lead to an increase in average customer bills of £135 (28.9%) in 2025-26, around £11 per month. All customers will be contacted directly with the exact details of their bill through the normal billing cycle which begins in February. 

The investment will also boost Yorkshire’s economy, supporting 10,000 jobs across Yorkshire Water and its supply chain. This will include the creation of more jobs at Yorkshire Water over the next 12 months to ensure the business can deliver to benefit customers and the region. 

Nicola Shaw, Yorkshire Water CEO, said: “This is our largest ever environmental investment and will lead to a step change in service and the resilience of our infrastructure above and below ground.  

“Our plans are backed by our customers, who want to see a focus on environmental improvements, and a major aim throughout our planning process has been to deliver the high levels of investment customers want, while keeping bills as affordable as possible. 

“Of course, we’re aware some in our region are struggling financially, so as part of our plans for the next five years we’re increasing the support available to those households. We would encourage anyone who is struggling financially to contact our teams to discuss the options available to them. 

“Over the next five years, 535,000 households will be helped by all types of financial support offered by Yorkshire Water, which will amount to £375m of bill help and debt support for customers, up from £115m between 2020 and 2025. 345,000 customers will be provided with water bill support via the two bill reduction tariffs and three debt support schemes ​offered, up from 245,000 customers in the previous five-year period. 

“Money from bills, as well as shareholder investment and borrowing, will be spent on a wide variety of improvements across Yorkshire. Customers will see us working in their local area and feel the benefits of our investment over the five years and beyond, whether that’s through replacement of water mains in their town to make supplies more resilient, improvements to storm overflows on their local river to boost water quality or in an improved customer service experience when they need us.” 

Planning and preparations for the £8.3bn investment have been fast tracked for some time, with some investment, such as Yorkshire Water’s smart metering exchange programme and improvements to Ilkley wastewater treatment works already underway. Upgrades at the storm overflow at Wheatcroft, Scarborough, have already completed and are already delivering improvements in water quality. 

Some examples of other investments planned for the next 12 months include: 

• Replacement of more than 200km of water mains, as part of 1,085km of main replacement over the next five years. 
• More than 150,000 smart meter exchanges across the region 
• Over £250m investment to reduce storm overflows across the region and continuously monitor the quality of our rivers, as part of a £1.5bn investment over five years 
• More than £2bn investment in the water industry national environment programme (WINEP) over the next five years 
• £67m to continue our work to reduce Phosphorus entering watercourses at 45 wastewater treatment works, of which 13 will be completed in the first year.  
• £23m on improved monitoring of the wastewater network  
• Investment in water treatment works at East Ness, Doncaster boreholes, Ingbirchworth, Haisthorpe and the construction of a new borehole at Brayton 
• New investments at Scarborough, Robin Hood’s Bay and Bridlington to improve bathing water quality