Yorkshire Water ordered to cut bills for customers after missing key targets on pollution
Yorkshire Water has been ordered to refund customers £36 million next year through lower bills after missing key targets on pollution.
The instruction from the industry regulator, Ofwat, means people in Sheffield who are covered by Yorkshire Water will be paying less than what they would have been from April 2025.
Penalties like these do not necessarily mean bills will be lower than they are now and most people across the UK will see bills fall by less than £10.
Ofwat ordered water companies to return a total of £158m to customers, of which Yorkshire Water is paying back the third highest amount after Anglian Water (£38.1m) and Thames Water (£56.8m).
A spokesperson for Yorkshire Water said: “Last year, we made some great improvements in reducing leakage, which we know is a key area that our customers care about. We're pleased this work has been recognised and our performance rating has been improved by Ofwat.
"We also made progress versus the rest of the industry in how our customers perceived us and we are continuing with this improvement this year. We have delivered a significant increase in registering customers who may need extra help from us and made substantial investment in our wastewater network and continue to do so.
"Unfortunately, in other areas we did not meet some of our commitments and as a result, our customers will receive an adjustment to our bills from April next year. Despite this, we remain committed to doing right by our customers and delivering more of what they expect. We are in the process of investing almost £800m in our infrastructure across the region this year, which includes £180m to reduce storm overflow use and improve water quality in our region's rivers - another key area our customers really care about.
"Making long-term, lasting change takes time, but we arecommitted to doing more of what our customers expectandwill publish a service commitment plan in November. We have also submitted plans to Ofwat outlining our largest ever environment investment between 2025 and 2030 and we look forward to their decision and delivering in the next five years."
Yorkshire Water was one of four companies to move from Ofwat’s ‘Lagging behind’ category to the ‘average’ category, but are required to continue making service commitment plans, along with those in the bottom performance category, to “ensure improvements are maintained”.
Earlier this year, Ofwat proposed a total of £168m in fines to Thames Water, Yorkshire Water and Northumbrian Water for a “failure to comply with responsibilities to deal with wastewater”.
That package proposed fines of £47m against Yorkshire Water - alongside £104m from Thames Water and £17m for Northumbrian Water.
Some parts of Sheffield South East are served by Severn Trent Water, who are one of four water companies not ordered to lower bills next April.
The company received a specific mention from Ofwat CEO David Black when the regulator announced the refund order this week.
Mr Black said: “We are beginning to see that some companies are beginning to change their culture and adopt a more innovative and forward-thinking approach to tackling pollution.
“Severn Trent is taking action to cut sewage overflows with 617 improvements at 467 sites, delivered by over 400 specialist employees with plans in place for further investment. We need to see more firms showing the same sense of urgency and action.”