Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water invested £617 million in its water and wastewater network during 2025–26 as part of a long-term programme to improve environmental performance, strengthen ageing infrastructure and improve services for customers, according to its preliminary results announcement for the year published on Friday 5 June.

Investment during the year included £134 million on environmental improvements and £120 million to improve water quality and resilience of network – made up of £85 million on leakage reduction and £35 million to replace older pipes and improve drinking water quality.

The financial results are published as the company starts operating its new structure - the business has restructured through its Trawsnewid transformation programme, designed to strengthen accountability, improve operational performance and support delivery of the company’s long-term investment plans.

The business has also restructured through its Trawsnewid transformation programme, designed to strengthen accountability, improve operational performance and support delivery of the company’s long-term investment plans.

Progress made in key performance areas – but further improvement is still needed

The investment marks the first year of the company’s largest ever investment programme and comes as Welsh Water works to address a number of operational and environmental challenges across its network.

Over the past 12 months, work has begun on a number of major schemes that form part of Welsh Water’s investment plans to 2030, including:

• Early stage planning at the Gwent Levels to address a failing sewer main and work on a new rising sewer at Marlas (near Port Talbot)
• New wastewater treatment works to enhance the water quality of the Afon Teifi
• £4 million investment in Ferndale to build an underground tank to store extra rainwater and cut down on storm overflow operations
• £5 million investment in the Conwy Valley to replace 16km of older water pipes to deliver a safe, reliable supply of clean drinking water

Largest ever customer engagement programme

Welsh Water has also launched its largest-ever customer engagement programme as a key part of the development of a new 25-year company strategy. Through workshops, online sessions, surveys and community events across Wales this summer, including at the Royal Welsh Show and National Eisteddfod, customers and stakeholders will help shape the priorities, choices and direction that underpin the company’s future plans.

The utility says that with significant investment decisions ahead, choices will need to be made about the focus, scale and pace of change. Insights gathered through the engagement programme will directly inform those decisions and feed into the development of the new strategy.

While the company recognises performance remains below the standards customers rightly expect in a number of areas, it also says there have been early signs of improvement during 2025/26. Leakage has started to reduce as targeted work across the network begins to deliver results, including increased repairs and work on progressive metering. Customer complaints on water quality have also reduced, through work such as mains conditioning, network flushing and enhanced operational response. Internal sewer flooding incidents have reduced using sewer network monitors to manage high blockage risk and more data-driven proactive interventions.

The company is continuing to work through a significant performance improvement programme as it seeks to improve its Environmental Performance Assessment rating by Natural Resources Wales from 2 stars to 3 stars and move out of Ofwat’s ‘lagging company’ categorisation.

Welsh Water says the scale of the challenge reflects both the impact of increasingly extreme weather and the condition of some ageing infrastructure across the network. Ofwat has also now confirmed that it accepts the water company’s proposed £44.7 million redress package in relation to failures within parts of its sewerage network. The package will fund measures to reduce spills from storm overflows, tackle groundwater entering the sewer network and improve river water quality in sensitive catchments.

To support continued investment in essential infrastructure and environmental improvements, the average household bill for Welsh Water customers has increased by 4.8% in 2026–27, rising from £652 to £683. The company it says recognises the pressure this places on some households and currently provides financial support through social tariffs and assistance schemes to around 150,000 customers.

CEO - "in some areas we have not delivered the level of service our customers and communities expect"

Welsh Water Chief Executive, Roch Cheroux, who joined the company in October 2025 and formally took up the role of CEO in the New Year, said:

“We are working hard to deliver our vision which is to foster thriving communities by providing world-class water services. Water is fundamental to everyday life, and our priority is to provide reliable services our customers can trust. My colleagues and I live and work in these communities, and we share the same expectations.

“We know that in some areas we have not delivered the level of service our customers and communities expect, particularly on environmental performance. That is why we are investing at record levels to improve resilience, strengthen ageing infrastructure and deliver more reliable services, while keeping bills as affordable as possible. We are also listening carefully to customers and communities so that our future plans reflect the issues that matter most to them.”

Chair of Glas Cymru, Jane Hanson CBE, commmented:

“Over the past year we have focused relentlessly on building the foundations needed to deliver sustained improvements in performance. Our AMP8 Business Plan for 2025-30 is the most ambitious in the company’s history, with £6 billion of total expenditure and £4.2 billion of capital investment.

“We recognise the scale of the challenge ahead but important progress has been made through our Trawsnewid transformation programme, and the work on our investment plan is well underway. We know customers expect better from us in a number of areas and there is still a significant amount of work ahead. I am confident the momentum we have built during Roch’s first six months in his role will support continued improvements for customers and communities.”