We hold a licence to provide water and sewage services to a population of around seven million people in North West England.
Our regulated activities
Our water business is regulated in terms of both price and performance. The water regulator, Ofwat, reviews our price limits every five years. In the period between 2005-2010 we invested more than £3 billion to improve the water and wastewater infrastructure and the environment across the North West.
We work around the clock, 365 days a year, to supply almost 2,000 million litres of water every day to approximately 3.2 million homes and businesses before removing it safely and treating it before returning it to the environment.
We have:
- over 42,000 kilometres of water pipes, stretching from Cumbria down to Cheshire
- over 43,000 kilometres of sewers
- 575 wastewater treatment works
- 100 water treatment works
- 57,000 hectares of catchment land
Since 1990:
- Our water quality has improved from 99.6% to over 99.9% - the best it's ever been
- Compliance with bathing water standards across the North West has risen from just over 30% to more than 90%
- We've halved the amount of leakage from our networks supported by on going investment to replace worn out pipes
- We've invested more than £4,000 for every household in the North West, some £750 above the national average