We don’t talk about infrastructure much even though we rely on it every day. The clean water that keeps us healthy; the broadband that connects us to work, learning, and entertainment. Without it, life as we know it would cease to function.
United Utilities is building a stronger, greener, healthier north-west. At this year’s Labour North West party conference, I’m excited to partner with the New Statesman and discuss how to drive regional economic growth through infrastructure investment and skills development. In April, we embarked on the largest investment in water and wastewater infrastructure for over a century. This five-year, £13bn programme is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to upgrade infrastructure while at the same time providing lasting skills and quality jobs for our region. It will improve and safeguard water supplies for over 2 million customers as well deliver environmental benefits to 500 kilometres of the region’s rivers.
We began 2025 with record-setting rainfall, followed four months later by one of the driest spells in over 100 years. Autumn was then the wettest since the early 1980s. Climate-related events, rather than happening years apart, are now happening months apart. That brings great challenges to infrastructure providers. How do we help the north-west with climate change, population growth, or growing expectations for our services? Obviously, we’re not alone in facing these challenges. Every region wants to realise the benefits from a thriving economy, one that delivers great jobs for its people and fuels vibrant, thriving communities.
Plans to address these challenges are best informed by local insight. We recognise unlocking growth and productivity through infrastructure requires greater collaboration and coordination across sectors. That also includes local and national government. To better deliver, we have put “place” at the heart of what we do and reorganised our business to focus on each of the region’s five counties.
Our approach to integrated water planning with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and the Liverpool City Region – two areas with distinct identities – are examples of the type of place-based planning that bring together various agencies around a common objective: improving and protecting our region’s water supply.
We know that building costs will, unfortunately, have an impact on bills and we don’t take that lightly. That’s why we offer lots of different support options and have increased the amount of financial help we provide to those customers struggling with their bills.
Infrastructure isn’t always physical. The natural environment, especially for the water sector, is as much a vital asset as pipes and treatment plants.
For example, when it comes to reducing the risk of flooding, nature-based solutions that slow the flow of water and act as a natural filtration system now form part of our investment programme and integrated water plans. With these solutions, we’re also building flood protection, water filtration, and ecosystem resilience all at once. The question isn’t whether we can afford to invest in green infrastructure, but whether we can afford not to.
Investment in infrastructure also provides access to a range of top-quality jobs. Our current five-year plan will support approximately 30,000 jobs across the North West, accounting for roughly one in every hundred jobs in the region. We’ve already added 1,500 new jobs over the past 12 months.
Take the Haweswater Aqueduct Resilience Programme (HARP), one of the region’s largest single infrastructure projects. This £3bn programme will replace six tunnel sections to safeguard water supplies for 2.5 million customers. At its construction peak, HARP will employ around 1,200 people. Infrastructure requires a workforce to match.
Over the past decade, we’ve recruited more apprentices than ever, upskilling the next generation of water and wastewater engineers to meet the future challenges we face. We’ll need every one of them. We’re launching an apprentice recruitment initiative to train the next generation of infrastructure workers to help build and secure skills for the future. Many of our apprentices spend time at our Ofsted-accredited, state-of-the-art technical training centre in Bolton, which has an achievement rate of over 82 per cent, compared to the national average of 54 per cent.
The population of the north-west is projected to grow by half a million people over the next 25 years. That’s half a million more residents who will need water for their homes, schools, and hospitals. New data centres, massive infrastructure projects in their own right, require reliable water supplies too. Infrastructure is the lifeblood of the UK’s economy, and is key both to boosting delivery and creating high-skilled jobs across the region.
As we fuel our “Big North-West Upgrade”, I am committed to working with all stakeholders to explore how we deliver long-term regional growth to strengthen rather than constrain our communities and create brilliant jobs for the next generation. The infrastructure we build today will determine what’s possible tomorrow. We can’t afford to get it wrong.
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