en.Wedoany.com Reported - Yorkshire Water has published its annual report for the year ending March 31, 2026, showing that the company is undertaking the largest investment in its history—£8.3 billion between 2025 and 2030. The report notes that given the scale of new infrastructure and the complexity of the task, this will take time.

In the 2025-26 fiscal year, the company said it made progress in the fifth Asset Management Plan (AMP8): 23% of projects have entered site delivery, 88 projects have been completed, 89% of projects are in the design phase, and over 1,500 projects are in the design, construction, or completion stages. Revenue for the fiscal year reached £1.6398 billion, up 26.2% year-on-year, driven by higher regulatory revenue during AMP8. The company invested £989.8 million in capital projects throughout the year to improve services across Yorkshire (2025: £889.8 million). The company's net debt position increased to £7.5857 billion, attributed to the financing of the capital expenditure program and the impact of inflation on the debt portfolio. The gearing ratio remained at 72.8% (2025: 72.5%), with credit ratings from Moody's, Fitch, and S&P remaining stable. The company expects the regulatory gearing ratio to decline by approximately 5 percentage points by the end of AMP8. In July 2025, the company successfully raised £700 million in new debt financing, demonstrating its continued ability to access financing at acceptable market rates. As of March 31, 2026, Yorkshire Water Financing Group had available liquidity of £1.2822 billion, sufficient to cover forecast cash flows until March 2028. However, in Ofwat's latest Financial Resilience Monitoring report, Yorkshire Water remains classified as a "heightened concern" entity.

Positive developments emerged at the shareholder level: In March 2026, global investment firm EQT acquired a 42% stake in Kelda Holdings, the parent company of Yorkshire Water. This followed an announcement in February 2026 that two of the parent company's four shareholders were selling their shares, allowing EQT to acquire a 42% stake in the group. Through its private capital and infrastructure strategies, EQT has directly invested over £10 billion in equity in UK-based businesses, and as of December 31, 2025, its total assets under management stood at €270 billion (including €141 billion in fee-generating assets under management). The report also disclosed that over £600 million (including interest) in remaining intercompany loan balances is expected to be repaid by the end of March 2027 to improve financial resilience and reduce leverage levels.

On the operational front, the company made environmental progress through investments in technology and infrastructure. Approximately 175 km of water mains were replaced over 12 months, exceeding the annual target and more than double the total length replaced over the previous five years combined. Leakage decreased by 18.5% from the 2020 baseline (a 3.4% year-on-year improvement), and the company has expanded its leakage team to shorten the time taken to detect and repair leaks. Storm overflow operations were reduced by 24.5% (on a calendar year basis), with the average number of spills per overflow falling from 31 to 24. External sewer flooding decreased by 10.1%. The company initiated 26 different projects to replace sewers across the region, completing 3 last year. No Category 1 pollution incidents occurred during the year, but despite enhanced monitoring, the total number of pollution incidents rose to 49.75 per 10,000 km of sewer, exceeding the target; the company launched a pollution incident reduction plan to drive improvements and identified operational areas needing improvement: water supply interruption duration and internal sewer flooding incidents. Additionally, the company exceeded targets for smart meter upgrades, pressure control valve installations, and the deployment of new technologies and smart networks to reduce water loss.

In customer service, the company continued to focus on improving the customer experience. The report stated that customer sentiment declined following an average 30% increase in bills in April 2025 and the subsequent implementation of hosepipe restrictions in July, impacting performance. The company provided £70 million in financial support to 246,000 customer bills (2025: £45 million to 167,000 customer bills) and added 80,000 new customers to the Priority Services Register to tailor services more closely to their needs. Ofwat's Customer Experience Measure (C-MeX) ranking fell from 10th to 12th/17th, and the company is taking steps to address this disappointing performance. The company plans to increase the number of customer-facing staff, introduce a "second voice" escalation channel (available if a customer feels an interaction was not handled as expected), and transition from tactical outcomes to sustainable strategic solutions through enhancements in digital self-service, automation, WhatsApp, and interactive voice response.

Regarding the 2025 EPA rating, which has been delayed by the Environment Agency to October 2026, the company expects the rating to drop to 1 star for three reasons: two related to pollution, requiring performance improvement; and a third, historical issue involving the failure to complete five improvement projects in the West Leeds 2020-2025 WINEP program.

Nicola Shaw, Chief Executive of Yorkshire Water, said: "Last year, we made a clear commitment to transparently show our performance, where we need to improve, and what we are doing for Yorkshire's customers and the environment—this full-year results statement demonstrates our commitment to open communication with customers and stakeholders. In fiscal 2026, we served 5.5 million individual customers daily, covering 2.4 million households and 146,000 businesses, experiencing six months of drought conditions followed by the wettest three months since 1871. We achieved some clear successes—showing our work is making a tangible impact—and the water network was more resilient at year-end due to the rapid investments we completed. At the same time, we delivered improvements in water quality, reductions in leakage and external sewer flooding, new water supply investments, and an impressive water main replacement program. Nevertheless, there is still much work to do to meet our targets. To this end, we are investing more than ever before, with £8.3 billion over the next five years. Many of our projects to improve services are multi-year initiatives that take time to deliver, but we remain focused on meeting the expectations of our customers and other stakeholders. I am confident we have the right strategy and investment plan to deliver lasting benefits for Yorkshire's customers and the environment."