Megaproject

Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water Set To Invest £665 Million In 2025/26The investment is part of its largest-ever capital investment programme of over £4 billion for the 5 years up to the end of AMP8 in March 2030. Together with its company-wide transformation programme (known as Trawsnewid) the investment will deliver improvements for customers, communities, and the environment. The first months of the year also recorded Wales’ warmest summer on record, and despite Natural Resources Wales placing much of Wales in environmental drought, Welsh Water avoided any restrictions on customers’ water supplies. The record investment is delivering major and innovative projects such as the recently opened £13 million wetland storm overflow at Pont-y-felin in Torfaen - the first of its kind in the UK. By harnessing the natural filtering power of wetlands, the site is already reducing the company’s impact on local rivers and setting a model for future sustainable investment. In October Welsh Water also launched consultations on the largest infrastructure project in the company’s history – the Cwm Taf Water Supply Strategy. The plans will modernise the drinking water network across South Wales, replacing century-old treatment facilities and increasing clean water storage capacity. While climate change has continued to impact the company’s services over the last six months, despite the prolonged dry periods over spring and summer, careful management of water supplies meant there was no need for temporary restrictions or ‘hosepipe bans’ across the water company’s operating area In the 6 months between April and September 2025, the company made progress on reducing incidents of internal and external flooding, improving river water quality and overall pollution incidents and building on the 576km of rivers improved between 2020 and 2025. Although the company’s Environmental Performance Assessment will remain at two stars, improvements were noted in four of the seven elements of the EPA measure in the last year, and the total number of pollution incidents is the second lowest in the industry. However, Welsh Water company acknowledges the need to continue making changes in some areas of performance and has detailed plans in place to address this, including improving discharge permit compliance at wastewater treatment works and reducing serious pollution incidents. Performance metrics highlighted in the report include: In the six months to 30 September 2025 revenue increased by 27% to £583 million (2024: £461 million), primarily reflecting customer price increases. and capital investment totalled £288 million (2024: £295 million). Adjusted operating profit of £103 million improved by £104 million (2024: £1 million loss) reflecting the revenue increase. This was partially offset by higher operating costs driven by an increase in bad debt charges (£7 million) as a result of the customer price increases, inflationary pay awards to staff (£2 million), spend to protect compliance activities (£2 million) and £3 million customer compensation payments following major bursts compounded by a one-off business rate refund of £4 million in the prior period. Transformation and restructuring costs of £15 million relate to theTrawsnewid transformation programme, split £7 million professional services costs and £8 million employee related restructuring costs. The Group reported a loss before taxation of £29 million (2024: £54 million). Gearing has stayed at 62% since March 2025, remaining well within the threshold of the Group’s covenants and existing credit rating. Credit ratings remain at BBB+/Baa1/A- for senior Class B debt from Standard and Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch respectively. Welsh Water raised £450 million in capital from investors in September, and has embarked on the company-wide transformation programme which aims to improve processes, make better use of technology and ensure that the company’s funds are focussed on front line delivery of services. In order to maintain its finances on a stable footing, the utility is reducing the number of people employed by the company by 500 – or 12% of the workforce - over the course of the next 18-24 months. “This is a decision that we did not want to take, but it is necessary,” Peter Perry commented. The company continues to have strong credit ratings and the transformation programme which is well underway is a key part of maintaining this position. Earlier this year, the average household bill increased by 27% and the transformation programme is to review how customer money is spent by the company, how efficient its processes are, and ensuring that value for money is achieved across the supply chain. Photo: Welsh Water CEO Peter Perry Commenting on the interim results, Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water CEO Peter Perry said: “Whilst we face many challenges today, operational performance is incomparable to what they were when Welsh Water became a not-for-profit company almost 25 years ago. The targets we must meet continue to get tougher as regulators rightly want to push for higher standards; but maintaining increasingly aging assets and the real impact of climate change are making it ever more difficult to strike an acceptable balance between performance improvements and building resilience for the future, at a cost that is acceptable to our customers. We cannot do everything, everywhere all at once – it is not affordable or deliverable, and we must therefore work ever closer with our customers to agree how limited resource is prioritised. Peter Perry will retire in spring 2026 after a 45-year career in the sector, with CEO-elect Roch Cheroux, former CEO of Sydney Water, taking the helm in January.

Water Briefing

water

21 November 2025

5 min read

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