Yorkshire Water to pay out £40m after sewage overflow failings

Yorkshire Water has been fined £40m by Ofwat due to shortcomings in its wastewater and sewage management.

The industry regulator uncovered "serious failures" in the company's operation and maintenance of its sewage network during an investigation. This led to an excessive number of spills from storm overflows, according to Ofwat.

Acknowledging its shortcomings, Yorkshire Water has consented to the enforcement measures.

Over the next five years, it will allocate £36.6m to expedite improvements on particularly troublesome storm overflows in areas of environmental significance. Additionally, the water provider, serving over five million customers, will contribute £3.4m to the Great Yorkshire Rivers Partnership.

This news arrives as Yorkshire Water is poised to raise its annual customer bill by 29% starting April 1. Ofwat stressed that the fine will be paid by the company and its shareholders, not by customers.

Lynn Parker, Ofwat's senior director for enforcement, said: "Our investigation has found serious failures in how Yorkshire Water has operated and maintained its sewage works and networks, which has resulted in excessive spills from storm overflows. This is a significant breach and is unacceptable.

“We are pleased that Yorkshire Water has recognised this failure and is taking steps to put it right for the benefit of customers and the environment. They deserve credit for stepping up and agreeing an enforcement package with us that will help get things back on track as soon as possible. These commitments will contribute to the company delivering on its promises for cleaner rivers and seas.

“We now expect them to move at pace to correct the remaining issues our investigation has identified. We hope more companies will follow this example so that the public sees transformative change across the sector."

Nicola Shaw, chief executive of Yorkshire Water, said: "We know our storm overflows operate more frequently than we, or our customers, would like them to. Since 2021, we've been actively taking steps to improve our performance. We began remedying all the issues that had been identified, during Ofwat's investigation, at our wastewater treatment works, and then took the additional decision to start our £180m investment programme to reduce discharges further. We've now completed work at 70 storm overflows and we're about to start our £1.5bn programme to reduce discharges even further over the next five years.

"We know there's still more for us to do. We're at the forefront of the industry to get this resolved and we're looking forward to delivering our ambitious plans to improve river health in Yorkshire. We apologise for our past mistakes and hope this enforcement package goes some way to show our commitment to improving the environment. The overflows we'll be investing in will be ones that were due to receive investment in the 2030-35 period and we'll be accelerating improvements to them. We are pleased that Ofwat understands the importance of this money staying within our region to help fund vital environmental improvements that will have real benefits for the customers of Yorkshire."