Ofwat, the body responsible for economic regulation of the privatised water and sewerage industry in England and Wales, said it has concluded its investigation into Yorkshire Water — securing an enforcement package of £40 million to be paid by the wastewater company.

Lynn Parker, Senior Director for Enforcement at Ofwat, 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.”

The regulator said Yorkshire Water will pay a total enforcement package of £40 million which includes:

• Paying £36.6 million during 2025-30, to prioritise work on some of the most problematic storm overflows in environmentally sensitive areas to ensure they spill less than 20 times a year.
• Contributing £3.4 million of support to the Great Yorkshire Rivers Partnership to enable them to go beyond their target for the next five years of clearing artificial barriers in Yorkshire rivers, which will improve water quality and biodiversity in the area and reconnect more than 500km of river.
• Committing to an action plan to ensure all of its storm overflows are compliant with legal requirements.

Ofwat said the cost of the £40 million enforcement package will not be passed on to Yorkshire Water’s customers in their bills – it will be paid for by the company and their shareholders. 

A spokesperson for The Great Yorkshire Rivers Partnership said: “We welcome the additional funding that supports the vision of our Partnership that aims to deliver real change within the Yorkshire landscape. Our mission is to address all significant barriers to fish migration in Yorkshire’s rivers.

“This helps nature restore natural river processes, improve water quality and promote biodiversity to create better blue spaces for both nature and people. By reinvesting this money in Yorkshire, even more projects will be delivered by Great Yorkshire Rivers partners across the county to support the recovery of our native fish species.”

Yorkshire Water CEO Nicola Shaw 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.”