North Yorkshire Council

Richmond (Yorks) Area Committee – 15 September 2025

Northumbrian Water update

Northumbrian Water serves a relatively small number of customers in the committee area compared with, for example, Yorkshire Water. Our services here cover around 11,800 properties across the Richmond District, Hambleton, and a small part of Scarborough, including residential and commercial properties. We greatly value all of our customers, and we’re proud to serve them – always aiming to provide the best possible service.

Response times to reported leaks and how our response is coordinated

We have continued to strengthen our approach to finding and fixing leaks quickly. Using smart sensors, AI-enabled analysis, and ‘No-Dig’ repair technology, we can identify and repair leaks more efficiently while reducing disruption to customers and communities. Our focus is always on restoring supplies promptly, often by re-routing water through other parts of the network or deploying mobile storage tanks, before carrying out permanent repairs. While our Annual Report does not publish an average response time, the technology and processes we use are designed to achieve industry-leading speed and reliability.

Steps being taken to reduce river pollution

Tackling pollution is a top priority. For the second year running, we recorded no serious category 1 or 2 pollution incidents. Our “Restore and Regenerate” Environment Strategy  sets out, in detail, the actions we’re taking to protect rivers, coasts, and catchments. By way of summary, this includes:

• Targeted sewer maintenance to reduce spills and blockages.
• Expansion of early-warning monitoring systems.
• Major investment in storm overflow improvements.
• Nature-based solutions such as wetlands to naturally filter and improve water quality.

We’re proud that bathing waters in our area remain among the cleanest in the country, with 33 out of 35 rated Excellent or Good.

Ofwat’s latest determinations put a strong emphasis on tackling storm overflows and protecting the environment. Northumbrian Water has been recognised as a top performer in reducing internal sewer flooding and has been given a £6.1 billion investment budget for 2025–30. This reflects both our past performance and the regulator’s confidence in our ability to deliver future environmental improvements.

Housing development, sustainable water management and infrastructure

We work closely with developers to ensure new water and wastewater connections are delivered on time, which has helped us achieve 2nd place nationally in Ofwat’s D-MeX rankings for developer services.

We know this is an area of real interest, and sometimes concern, for councillors and communities. We’d be happy to attend a future meeting, including planning committees, to explain our role as a non-statutory consultee and the legal framework around developers’ ‘right to connect’.

Our work in this area is guided by our Water Resources Management Plan, which outlines how we’ll meet the needs of a growing population by:

• Delivering new and upgraded infrastructure.
• Using water resources more sustainably.
• Promoting demand management to reduce consumption.

From April 2025, our five-year investment plan will see £3.6 billion spent on infrastructure upgrades across our regions, including key treatment works and pipeline schemes.

We aim to support non-household connections where mains water will be used for non-domestic purposes. However, unlike domestic connections, we do not have a statutory obligation to provide these. Applications for non-domestic connections are assessed on a case-by-case basis, taking into account factors such as the intended use of water, available water resource headroom, water efficiency considerations, network capacity, and the feasibility of enforcing our network should this be required.

Where the network is under pressure, we plan and deliver the necessary reinforcements, funded partly by developers and partly through our regulated investment programme.

Early collaboration with councils and developers is key to ensuring that network upgrades are aligned with planned growth. This proactive approach enables housing delivery to progress smoothly while safeguarding long-term sustainable water management. We understand that network “capacity” is often a topic of concern in planning discussions, and we would be pleased to attend meetings to help explore this in more detail.

It is also important to note that following the release of our Water Resources Management Plan in October 2024, national housing targets increased, which includes 4,126 new properties within North Yorkshire’s jurisdiction (Ref housing delivery report 17 June 2025). We're currently assessing what this means for our demand forecast, although until local planning authorities publish their next round of Local Development Plans, it will be difficult to know exactly which water resource zone to allocate it to – particularly where a council covers more than one water company as is the case here.  However, we will work closely with the council on this and provide updates on any further developments. 

Sewerage management, capacity, pollution incidents

Despite higher-than-average rainfall, we achieved all of our sewer flooding targets this year. Over the past five years we have delivered a 69% reduction in internal sewer flooding and are now a leading company in this area.. Key investments have included:

• Operational improvements:  Activities to improve the way we work to reduce incidents occurring that are within our control.
• Customer education and communication:  Our Bin the Wipe campaign has seen us engage over 800,000 households and has led to up to a 90% reduction in  the number of wipes found in sewers in some locations.
• Smarter monitoring to detect and resolve problems earlier. For example we are using video capture and AI technology to help ensure we can provide the right service to our customers more efficiently. 
• Capacity improvements in key network locations.

These measures have helped us maintain strong performance in reducing pollution incidents.

Our Water Resources Management Plan sets out how we will serve growing populations through new and upgraded infrastructure, sustainable abstraction, and demand management programmes.

Our Drainage and Wastewater Management Plan (DWMP) sets out a long-term strategy to reduce river pollution, support sustainable housing growth, and improve sewerage resilience. It includes major investment in storm overflow reduction, wastewater treatment, and smart monitoring, while enabling growth through coordinated infrastructure planning and nature-based solutions. We are now into the second cycle of our DWMP working to the Government’s new statutory guidelines published in May this year and are committed to working closely with local authorities, Lead Local Flood Authorities, and other Risk Management Authorities to deliver shared outcomes, and we welcome continued collaboration to shape and deliver integrated, place-based solutions.

Regarding capacity, it is sometimes assumed that a lack of capacity in the water or sewerage network can block development. In fact, under the Water Industry Act 1991, we have a statutory duty to provide connections once planning permission is granted. We cannot refuse development because of capacity issues. Where networks are under pressure, we deliver the necessary reinforcement through funds from developer contributions and our regulated investment programme.

By working with planning authorities and developers at an early stage, we ensure that network upgrades are aligned with growth, allowing housing delivery to proceed while also supporting long-term sustainable water management. We recognise that during robust debate over a new development, capacity is often used as a tool in these debates. Due to this area often being misunderstood, we are happy to attend a meeting should this be helpful to help inform councillors.

Sustainable land management and natural flood management

We continue to work with partners on nature-based solutions, such as peatland restoration, tree planting, and wider catchment management. These interventions improve water quality, boost biodiversity, and help manage flood risk in natural, cost-effective ways that complement traditional engineering.

We remain firmly committed to NBS because of the multiple benefits it delivers. While national policy has recently placed greater emphasis on speeding up infrastructure and housing delivery, we continue to embed NBS in our long-term strategies, including our Drainage & Wastewater Management Plan and “Restore and Regenerate” programme.

With regulatory backing through Ofwat’s PR24 determination, we have secured significant investment to expand the use of NBS, ensuring they deliver lasting benefits for the environment and local communities.

Roadworks and traffic management

While our Annual Report does not provide specific metrics in this area, we always aim to keep disruption to a minimum. Wherever possible, we use ‘No-Dig’ technology and careful scheduling to shorten the duration of roadworks and reduce traffic impacts.

The safety of workers whilst the work is carried out and the area restored and cleansed afterwards is also a key concern, as well as the safety of members of the public passing areas where they may be deep holes, exposing pipes and lots of water in more serious incidents. Every incident is individually analysed with, we hope, the best decisions taken regarding issues such as traffic management or road closures. We welcome any feedback if there are specific instances of concern where you feel our approach could have been different. 

Further information can be found in Northumbrian Water’s  Annual Performance Report (2024–25).

Malcolm Clarke

Public Affairs Business Partner

Northumbrian Water