Yorkshire Water has submitted plans to Ofwat as part of the Price Review 24 (PR24) process, outlining a £7.8bn investment across the region between 2025 and 2030. The plan marks the start of the utility’s largest environmental investment in the region.
£3.1bn investment will drive efforts to deliver secure, safe, clean water supplies with improved resilience of its network of pipes and a focus on future water resource needs.
£4.3bn will support plans for a healthy, natural environment, with a focus on protecting and improving river and coastal water quality, to create a cleaner, safer water environment.
The plan outlines investment in customer service and an increase in support available to customers with an investment of £446m.
This includes financial support for half a million (500,000) customers, direct help with water bills for 280,000 customers and £250m worth of financial support across the five years.
The plan will support employment for more than 10,000 people across Yorkshire.
Nicola Shaw, Chief Executive of Yorkshire Water, said:
“My focus since joining Yorkshire Water has been improving our performance and delivering the best value and service for customers. Stakeholders and customers have made it clear they want more from us, and we’ve listened to what they’ve had to say. We want to play our part in making sure our wonderful county thrives by focusing our investment in the areas that matter most to our customers.
“This submission marks our largest ever environmental investment and illustrates our commitment to deliver what our customers expect. The programme will protect and improve the quality of water in rivers and at coasts, leading to cleaner, safer water environments that support recreation and biodiversity across the region.
“While this is what we hope to do in the next five years in terms of investment, it does not stand alone. We are working internally to ensure all our colleagues are engaged and pulling in the right direction to deliver this ambitious plan.
“The next steps in this process are for Ofwat to provide us with draft determinations in the early summer 2024 and then final determinations before the end of 2024 before we start the new period in April 2025.”
If approved, plans would see average customer bills rise from £438.12 in 2024/25 (£36.51 per month) to £518.76 in 2025/26 (£43.23 per month) with small increases each year thereafter. Yorkshire Water is enhancing its support for customers who may be struggling financially and will be increasing its contributions to help those most in need. All low-income households will be able to access financial support from Yorkshire Water and the utility is committed to increasing its support for customers by 25%.
