Shipley MP condemns “utterly unacceptable” Yorkshire Water performance after surge in pollution incidents

Anna Dixon MP for Shipley, has today condemned the performance of Yorkshire Water after the company revealed it was responsible for 260 pollution incidents in the last financial year - a 72 per cent increase on the previous year's figure of 151.

The scale of the increase, disclosed in Yorkshire Water's 2025/26 results, comes as the firm braces for a downgrade from two-star to one-star in the Environment Agency's Environmental Performance Assessment, with rankings to be published in October.

Ms Dixon has been a vocal critic of Yorkshire Water and a strong advocate for reform of the water sector throughout her time in Parliament, and described the figures in the report as “utterly unacceptable”. 

She said: “It is clear to see that the environmental performance of Yorkshire Water is in freefall, all while my Shipley constituents are seeing their water bills rise. And then they are paying again through the degradation of the rivers at the heart of our communities. 

“Warm words from Yorkshire Water’s leadership are, frankly, worthless at this stage. This is a long-term pattern of failure. Thirteen serious pollution incidents last year, the same number as the previous year, show a company that has learned nothing and changed nothing. 

“My constituents will very rightly ask how a company reporting profits of £78.9 million, and a jump in earnings to £882.2 million, can allow its performance to deteriorate so sharply. 

“It is becoming harder by the year to argue that the current ownership model is delivering for the people of Shipley, or for Yorkshire as a whole. That is why I have been calling on the Government to urgently reform the legal framework so that failing water companies can be brought back into public ownership far more easily than is currently possible.

“Regulation alone has clearly not been sufficient to stop this decline. If a company cannot demonstrate sustained improvement, the public should not be trapped indefinitely as captive customers of an operator that is comprehensively failing them at every turn. 

"I will be writing to Yorkshire Water's chief executive demanding a full and public explanation of the appalling revelations in this report, and I will be raising this directly with the Environment Agency, Ofwat, and government ministers."

Anna Dixon MP has called on Yorkshire Water to:

• Publish an immediate, independent plan to cut pollution incidents in the River Aire and River Wharfe, with clear targets and deadlines

• Provide full transparency on the causes and locations of pollution incidents affecting the Shipley constituency's rivers

• Cooperate fully with any government move to strengthen enforcement powers, including frameworks to ease the path to public ownership for failing water companies.