Yorkshire Water rated 2 star as annual report published on water company environmental performance

The report shows an improvement in star ratings under the Environmental Performance Assessment (EPA), but the majority of companies continue to underperform.

The EPA is the only independent comparison of environmental performance across the sector. Since 2011, the Environment Agency has used the EPA to rate each company in England from 1 star to 4 stars.

 In Yorkshire, Yorkshire Water was rated a 2 star company in 2023, a decrease from its 3 star rating in 2022.

It had five serious pollution incidents in 2023 compared to three in 2022, moving this metric from amber to red – which is not acceptable. It also had 26 total pollution incidents per 10,000km of sewer, up from 22 in 2022.

The company self-reported 75% of incidents, below the industry average of 84 per cent.

The Environment Agency expects to see sustained improvements around reducing pollution incidents across Yorkshire and Yorkshire Water’s timeliness in reporting them.

Permit compliance remained good with the company scoring 99.7 per cent, equalling its performance in 2022. Yorkshire Water delivered 100 per cent of its improvement schemes under the Water Industry National Environment Programme (WINEP). It was green in the other metrics for satisfactory sludge use and disposal and water supply and demand.

Mike Dugher, Area Director, for the Environment Agency in Yorkshire, said: “It is disappointing that Yorkshire Water has dropped from a 3 star to a 2 star company. We know this is due to its performance around pollution incidents and we are clear that this simply must improve.

“Whilst Yorkshire Water have performed well in some areas such as permit compliance, there is no room for any complacency, and we need to see quicker action from companies to turn things around.

“Our expectations on Yorkshire Water remains high; we expect to see them take rapid actions to address their current poor performance including a consistent reduction in the number of pollution incidents and a sustained improvement in the timeliness and quality of self-reporting.

“That is why we will continue our rigorous enforcement activity across Yorkshire ensuring that when companies do commit environmental offences, they are rightly held to account.”

The aim of the report is to highlight where improvement in water company performance is required and push for continuous improvement across the sector. As the regulator the Environment Agency constantly tighten EPA targets. This has been fundamental in driving better performance, however current performance remains well below expectations.

The Environment Agency is challenging how things have been done in the past to address water industry performance through increasing its capacity and improving capability. Having secured an additional £55m of funding from government and water company permits, the Environment Agency are investing in a bigger specialised enforcement workforce and setting aside £15 million for new digital and monitoring systems to identify the root cause of issues.

Within the Yorkshire Area, the Environment Agency has greatly increased the number of planned site inspections to identify and address compliance issues and tackle pollution sources. In the first quarter of 2024, we completed 85 visits.

Since 2015 the Environment Agency has secured 63 prosecutions against water companies, securing fines of over £151 million. In 2023 the Environment Agency concluded 4 prosecutions against 4 different water companies, with fines of more than £6.7 million.

A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said: “Being rated as a two-star company in the latest Environmental Performance Assessment is certainly not the outcome we, or our customers, want.

"We have a robust improvement plan in place to reduce pollution incidents in the short and long-term, focusing on using new technology to improve visibility of the underground network so we can take action before issues on the network begin to impact the environment, and making improvements in self-reporting to further improve performance.

“Climate change and extremely wet weather in 2023, the sixth wettest on record, had a significant impact on the number of serious pollution incidents we dealt with in the 12-month period. The wet weather has continued into early 2024, posing further challenges for us in reducing pollution incidents to where we want them to be.​

“Despite the fall in our overall rating, we are pleased to lead the industry in terms of wastewater treatment works performance and had one of the lowest numbers of total pollution incidents per 10,000km of sewer, which is testament to the work of our teams throughout the year to deliver improved environmental performance. “

The full report is available to read on gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/water-and-sewerage-companies-in-england-environmental-performance-report-2023