Improving the North West's rivers

We’re committed to making the step change people want to see to the way storm overflows operate.

Our ‘Big North West upgrade’ will see us invest more than £3 billion in improving infrastructure and reducing spills by 60 percent over the 10 years to 2030.

Investment between 2025 and 2030 will help improve more than 300 miles of river, ranging from the River Kent in Cumbria to the Irwell, which flows through the counties of Lancashire and Greater Manchester.

In Windermere, we are implementing a £200 million plan to improve and protect water quality at England's most iconic lake, enhancing treatment at 9 wastewater treatment works and reducing spills at 6 storm overflows.

After the first year of our five-year plan, we are making really good progress. With interventions across more than 400 storm overflows in 2025 – combined with a drier year – we forecast that spills will have reduced by over 20%, or around 17,000 fewer spills, when official figures are released by the Environment Agency, expected in March 2026. Our monitors also show a one-quarter reduction in spill duration – equivalent to around 120,000 fewer hours.

We’ve been working at pace to deliver our largest environmental investment plan in water and wastewater services in a century, with 65% of spill reductions in 2025 directly linked to our interventions. We have now achieved just over a 45% reduction in spills since 2020, against target of 60% by 2030.