Here we provide three case studies aligned to the greener, healthier and stronger elements of our purpose.

Through our sector‑leading £280 million rainwater management programme, we’re bringing these greener approaches into community, commercial and public spaces, helping places manage rainfall more sustainably while creating healthier, more biodiverse environments for local communities.

This builds on our award‑winning Resilient Rainwater pilots, which showed how natural solutions can enrich local places and help prepare them for a changing climate.

Rather than relying solely on traditional hard infrastructure, we design outdoor spaces so they can absorb, filter and slow rainfall at the surface. By reducing the amount of rainwater unnecessarily entering the wastewater network, we support cleaner, healthier waterways while also enhancing the quality of local places.

Investment that delivers wider value

While the programme’s ultimate aim is to reduce the volume of rainfall entering the sewer system, every scheme delivers much more than water management. Greener interventions bring nature back into everyday settings, support biodiversity, reduce carbon and help cool urban areas. They create more welcoming, attractive spaces for recreation and learning, and contribute to local regeneration and placemaking.

Our partnership approach enables us to unlock even greater value. Working with local authorities, community groups, developers and regional partners, we align rainwater management with wider ambitions for net zero, active travel routes, healthier streets and stronger local economies. By replacing hard, impermeable surfaces with green design, we’re improving resilience while enhancing the everyday places where people live, work and learn.

Project FLOW: creating living educational spaces

Schools are a powerful example of the programme in action. Through Project FLOW (Future Leaders of Water), we’re helping schools adapt to heavy rainfall while inspiring pupils to value water and nature. With a goal of working with 400 schools by 2030, we’re already well underway.

In partnership with the Environment Agency and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, and aligned with the Integrated Water Management Plan, we prioritised 15 schools facing surface water challenges. We worked with teachers and designers to install raingardens and large planters that soak up rainfall naturally. These features slow the flow of water, encourage wildlife and transform playgrounds into living educational environments where pupils can learn about climate, habitats and stewardship first hand.

Each school also received a water-efficiency audit to fix leaks and install water-saving devices – saving more than 15,000 litres of clean water every day and over £50,000 across ten years, helping schools reinvest in pupils’ learning and wellbeing.

Outcomes and future impact

Across the first 15 schools, Project FLOW has created vibrant new green spaces and almost 136,000 litres of rainwater storage, reducing the amount of rainfall entering the wastewater network and enriching local habitats. We’re now extending our approach across the region and to other education settings, supported by outdoor learning with partners.

By managing rain where it falls, we’re improving local nature, supporting healthier communities and building places that are ready for a changing climate, while inspiring the next generation to care for the natural world.

Our approach goes far beyond standard payment assistance: we combine tailored affordability schemes, proactive outreach, and compassionate, human-centred guidance to help households manage their water bills with confidence.

By understanding each customer’s circumstances and offering flexible, practical solutions, we’re committed to making essential services genuinely accessible – especially for those who need our support the most.

We recognise that the record levels of investment we are delivering through to 2030 has an impact on customer bills, which makes it more important than ever to ensure that financial support is easy to access and available when customers need it.

One of the ways we are proactively getting support to those customers who need it the most is via our new low-income water discount scheme. Introduced in 2025, this has provided around 180,000 customers with £9 million in support through a £50 discount being directly applied to bills without the customer having to apply. For 2026/27, we will see the number of customers supported by this new scheme increase to around 270,000 – with £13.5 million in support being provided.

While we continue to work with the Government on positive reform to the WaterSure scheme, our proactive introduction of WaterSure Plus, ahead of reform changes, has already seen over 200 customers benefitting from a capped water bill who would not normally be eligible to access the current WaterSure scheme.

A positive assessment of our approach to customers in debt

As part of their two-day assessment of our approach to customers in debt, the Consumer Council for Water (CCW) identified some real positives, highlighting our proactive application of affordability support as good practice. When we identify someone who may be struggling, we don’t wait for them to come to us – we reach out, offer guidance, and explore every possible route to help, even when engagement is limited.

Raising affordability awareness in our communities

We have improved awareness of our industry-leading affordability schemes through our internal volunteering and community champions initiatives, providing colleagues with the opportunity to bring their enthusiasm into their local communities. Our outreach and engagement team were supported at 23 events by 15 community champions, enabling more than a thousand customer conversations around affordability. Champions are equipped to answer water efficiency, billing, Priority Services and metering queries, with clear escalation routes for more complex questions. This creates added value for customers and communities, while feeding real-life experiences back into teams to keep us empathetic and connected to the communities we serve.

Partnering to be better together

We have seen strong engagement from partners in our trusted ‘better together’ scheme. This offers three levels of engagement, from initial outreach through to full data-sharing agreements to identify customers most in need. We provide customers with support without an additional application, benefitting those who are least likely to engage due to barriers or lack of awareness. Our first pilots with Kidney Care UK and Cheshire West and Chester Council will help us streamline the process to achieve the best outcomes for customers, partners, and our affordability teams.

A county-based approach to support

Our county-based focus to get help to those communities who really need it is bringing huge benefits to the region. In the last 12 months, our team has engaged with 73 organisations across the North West and had meaningful conversations with MPs and local authority leaders, building awareness and strengthening partnerships.

A seamless affordability assessment process

The enhancement of our affordability assessment solution with IE Hub has now successfully concluded. The solution allows us to create a more holistic affordability assessment journey, with capability for customers to self-serve where appropriate, as well as the integration of open banking to improve the accuracy and efficiency of our customer affordability assessments and make applying for support as easy as possible for our customers.

Water without worry

Our commitment is simple: every customer deserves access to essential water services without worrying about their bills. By combining practical tools, personalised support, and a genuinely compassionate approach, we’re proving that our affordability strategy is getting the right support to those customers who need it.

In October 2025, we became the first water company in the UK to achieve certification to the revised ISO 55001:2024 Asset Management Standard.

We were pleased to be the first in the industry to achieve this standard and, in November 2025, Ofwat set out an ambition that all water companies should demonstrate asset management maturity by attaining the same certification in future.

A whole organisation effort

Achieving the new certification required a whole organisation effort to strengthen strategic asset management capability, improve resilience, and enhance the way we use insight and risk-based decision-making to deliver long-term value for customers and the region.

Having initially secured certification to the original standard in 2022, we made the bold strategic decision to transition directly to the new version rather than recertify against an outgoing standard. This choice reflected both our ambition and our confidence in the maturity of our asset management approach.

The new standard introduced a swathe of new requirements, as well as clarification of some pre-existing ones. In preparation, our internal audit and assurance team led a gap analysis, identifying 169 improvement actions to meet the new standard, which we grouped into activity types to implement the changes required.

The gap-closing activities involved over 100 colleagues across multiple departments, resulting in improvements to processes, documents, communications, and training. Our strategic asset management plan was also updated to reflect the improvements made and the requirements of the new standard. The audit itself was an intensive eight-day interview of 85 colleagues and partners across 13 sites, taking in each county and each discipline to demonstrate the depth of our asset management culture. Feedback from the audit commended our improved capability, strong leadership, and engaged people.

Gap closing activities involved over 100 colleagues across multiple departments, resulting in improvements to processes, documents, communications, and training. Our strategic asset management plan was also updated to reflect the improvements made and the requirements of the new standard.

The audit itself was an intensive eight-day interview of 85 colleagues and partners across 13 sites, taking in each county and each discipline to demonstrate the depth of our asset management culture.

Feedback from the audit commended our improved capability, strong leadership, and engaged people.

Strengthening our capabilities

Certification is not the end of the journey; it is a platform. It strengthens our ability to make better long-term decisions, manage risk transparently, and deliver sustainable value for our customers and the environment.

By being the first to achieve ISO 55001:2024, we have, once again, demonstrated sector leadership, reinforcing our commitment to a stronger, more resilient water system for the North West.