Yorkshire Water has completed more than 200 water and wastewater infrastructure improvement projects across Yorkshire during 2025, as part of a major programme to improve environmental performance, strengthen network resilience and enhance customer service.
In total, 215 projects were delivered over the year, targeting key challenges including storm overflow discharges, ageing water mains, wastewater treatment capacity and long-term resilience of both water and wastewater networks.
Investment has focused on reducing pollution risks from storm overflows, replacing mains pipes prone to leakage or bursts, upgrading wastewater treatment facilities to better protect rivers and watercourses, and increasing system capacity to cope with extreme weather and population growth.
Richard Stuart, Director of Asset Delivery at Yorkshire Water, said: “2025 has been a really important year for us – working hard in the first three months to close out the previous five-year delivery period, and then navigating planning and beginning to deliver our largest ever five-year investment programme of £8.3bn.
“We are going through a step-change in the volume of infrastructure improvements we are making, and we’re hopeful that customers across the region are starting to feel the benefits of the work we have been doing.”
Over the past six months alone, Yorkshire Water has replaced approximately 120 kilometres of water mains across the region. The utility estimates these upgrades are saving around 1.24 million litres of water every day through reduced leakage.
In parallel, around 30,500 cubic metres of additional storage capacity has been added to the wastewater network, helping to reduce the likelihood of storm overflow discharges during periods of heavy rainfall.
This work builds on 102 storm overflow discharge reduction projects completed earlier in 2025 under a previous £180 million investment programme.
During the year, Yorkshire Water also initiated 277 new projects, including:
- More than 60 mains replacement schemes delivered across Yorkshire as part of a £406 million investment
- Drilling new boreholes at East Ness and Brayton Barff to unlock additional groundwater resources
- Creation of wetlands at South Elmsall and Dearne Reach to support wastewater treatment and reduce storm overflow activity
- Six further overflow improvement projects forming part of a £1.5 billion programme aimed at reducing discharges
Looking ahead, Yorkshire Water confirmed that multiple new projects will begin in early 2026, including further mains replacement schemes and storm overflow improvements.
Further details on Yorkshire Water’s ongoing infrastructure investment programme can be found on the company’s website:
https://www.yorkshirewater.com/investing-in-yorkshire/
