Our performance

What is it and why do we measure it?

This is how much water the average person uses each day. It’s important we use water carefully to make sure there’s enough for everyone. PCC only covers household use and is measured in litres per person per day.

How are we doing?

We're currently not on track to achieve our year-end target.

Although we're still off track, PPC is reducing every month. We're still feeling the impact of Covid-19 against this measure, but this is also reducing. We don't expect to achieve the year-end target, but we're still striving to achieve the best result possible in the final quarter of the year.

What is it and why do we measure it?

Working in partnership with others means that we can deliver more for our customers and the environment. This performance commitment measures the number of projects we deliver in partnership with other people, organisations or independent agencies.

How are we doing?

We're currently on track to achieve our year-end target.

This performance commitment is measured cumulatively over a five year period (2020- 2025). 16 schemes have been delivered in the first two years. No schemes have been completed so far this year, but we expect to deliver at least three schemes before year-end.

What is it and why do we measure it?

Our Education Team work hard to teach our community the value of water. This performance commitment measures the number of learning hours that we provide through lessons, workshops, talks, school assemblies and much more.

How are we doing?

We're currently on track to achieve our year-end target.

We continue to see excellent performance results against this measure and expect this to continue through to year end. We've seen a 6,185 learning hour growth since our last update which is really encouraging to see.

What is it and why do we measure it?

This measures how much money we’ve invested in our Living with Water partnership scheme. We’re working with the Environment Agency, Hull City Council and the East Riding of Yorkshire Council to lower the number of homes at risk of flooding in Hull and Haltemprice.

How are we doing?

We don't have any data to report yet.

This performance commitment is reported on an annual basis and the results are published in July.

What is it and why do we measure it?

It’s important that everyone trusts the quality of the water we supply. This performance commitment measures the number of times our customers contact us each year because of issues with the look, taste, or smell of their water. This measure is the number of contacts per 10,000 people over a calendar year.

How are we doing?

We're currently not on track to achieve our year-end target.

After seeing a spike in demand during July and August, because of the hot weather, we had a really strong finish to the year. We haven't achieved our target this quarter, but we've improved on our 2022 performance.

What is it and why do we measure it?

This measures the quality of our water. We test water samples and the results give us a Compliance Risk Index (CRI) score. A lower score is better, and our score increases with each quality failure at all points in our water supply system. Water quality compliance is measured and reported on a calendar year basis. 

How are we doing?

We're currently not on track to achieve our year-end target.

Our regulators have set us an aspirational target of no failures and a score of zero for this performance commitment. We won't achieve this target, but our performance has improved from last year and we expect this to continue to year-end.

What is it and why do we measure it?

This measures the amount of water lost between our treatment works and our customers’ taps. Water is precious and it’s important we lose as little as possible, so we work hard to keep this number as low as possible. We measure water lost through leaks in megalitres per day (Ml/day) and the number doesn’t include water lost inside buildings and homes.

How are we doing?

We're currently not on track to achieve our year-end target.

Although we're still off track, we're reducing the gap to target each month. We expect this to continue into the final quarter of the year and we're striving to deliver the best result possible.

What is it and why do we measure it?

Reducing water loss from leaks is a key aim for us, and some of those leaks happen in pipes owned by our customers. We can help repair these pipes, so this performance commitment measures the number of household supply pipe repairs and renewals we carry out each year for no charge.

How are we doing?

We're currently not on track to achieve our year-end target.

Our forecast for the rest of the year falls short of the year-end target. However, we're looking at ways we can improve this position and perform as strongly as possible against this measure.

What is it and why do we measure it?

We know that having to cut off the water supply, for any amount of time, impacts on our customers and we want to keep interruptions to supply as low as possible. This performance commitment measures the average supply time lost per customer, across all of our customers, for interruptions that lasted three hours or more.

How are we doing?

We're currently not on track to achieve our year-end target.

We were heavily impacted by three major events in the Ripon area during the second quarter. These events accounted for almost 5 minutes of our total. Because of this, we won't meet our year-end target for this measure, but we'll continue to put plans in place to deliver the best result possible.

What is it and why do we measure it?

It’s important that our water treatment works operate reliably. Sometimes our water treatment works shut down because of equipment failures, we call this an 'unplanned outage'. This performance commitment measures the percentage of time are treatment works are down. We want this number to be as low as possible.

How are we doing?

We're currently on track to achieve our year-end target.

Our performance against this measure has consistently been on track throughout the year. We expect this to continue to year-end.

What is it and why do we measure it?

We need to look after our water pipes. This performance commitment measures the number of mains repairs we carry out on our clean water mains network per 1,000 km. This number doesn’t include repairs to communication and supply pipes.

How are we doing?

We're currently not on track to achieve our year-end target.

This last quarter saw a total of 2,403 repairs made to our mains network. This is significantly higher than previous quarters, mainly due to the impact of colder winter weather. Unfortunately, it's really unlikely we'll achieve the year-end target for this measure, but we'll continue to strive for the best result possible.

What is it and why do we measure it?

We know having to cut off the water supply, for any amount of time, impacts our customers. So, we want to keep interruptions to water supply as low as possible. This performance commitment measures the number of water supply interruptions that last 12 hours or longer. This number includes supply interruptions that are planned, unplanned or caused by a third party.

How are we doing?

We're currently not on track to achieve our year-end target.

At the end of the third quarter, we've had seven significant water events confirmed and nine events at risk, resulting in 16 being reported. We're currently reviewing the final status of the nine events at risk, and are hopeful of being closer to target at year-end.

What is it and why do we measure it?

We all want acceptable water pressure when we turn on the taps. This performance commitment measures the number of properties getting, or at risk of getting, water pressure below the low-pressure reference level. The low-pressure reference level is a minimum standard set by our regulator, Ofwat.

How are we doing?

We're currently on track to achieve our year-end target.

Our performance against this measure has stayed strong and we expect this level to continue through to year-end.

What is it and why do we measure it?

As part of a national drive to improve the country's resilience to extreme weather event, this performance commitment measures how many of our customers would be at risk of experiencing harsh water restrictions in a 1-in-200 year drought, on average, over next 25 years.

How are we doing?

We're currently not on track to achieve our year-end target.

This measure has remained the same as our final 2021/2022 outcome. We have plans in place to greatly reduce leakage and look at the supply demand shortfall to bring this back to target.

What is it and why do we measure it?

Our high-quality drinking water is precious, so we try not to waste it. Sometimes, we can recycling water at our clean and wastewater treatment sites and use it for activities like cleaning. This performance commitment measures the volume of water we recycle in megalitres per day (Ml/d).

How are we doing?

We don't have any data to report yet.

This performance commitment is reported on an annual basis and the results are published in July.

What is it and why do we measure it?

Sometimes sewage can flood homes or business. We call this internal sewer flooding and we’re always working hard to lower the number of times this happens. This performance commitment measures the total number of internal sewer flooding incidents through the year per 10,000 sewer connections.

How are we doing?

We're currently not on track to achieve our year-end target.

We know sewer flooding is a key priority for our customers, so we’re working hard to improve our performance by:

• carrying out extra checks on sewers which are prone to flooding
• looking for blockages and clearing them before they cause flooding
• checking for defects in our pipes and fixing them before they become a problem
• installing telemetry devices which give us an early warning 
• promoting what can and can't be flushed down the loo.

Find out how you can help keep Yorkshire Blockage free

What is it and why do we measure it?

If a part of a sewer collapses, it can block the sewer and lead to sewer flooding or pollution. This performance commitment measures the number of sewer collapses that affect our customers’ supply or the environment, per 1,000 km of our sewer network.

How are we doing?

We're currently on track to achieve our year-end target.

Our strong performance against this commitment has continued. We remain dedicated to preventing collapses and maintain our water network.

What is it and why do we measure it?

As part of a national drive to improve the country's resilience to extreme weather event, this performance commitment measures how many of our customers would be at risk of internal sewer flooding from a 1 in 50-year storm, based on modelled predictions.

How are we doing?

We don't have any data to report yet.

This performance commitment is reported on an annual basis and the results are published in July.

What is it and why do we measure it?

External sewer flooding affects outdoor areas like parks and gardens. We’re always working hard to lower the number of this happens. This performance commitment measures the total number of external sewer flooding events through the year.

How are we doing?

We're currently on track to achieve our year-end target.

We know sewer flooding is a key priority for our customers, so we’re working hard to improve our performance by:

• carrying out extra checks on sewers which are prone to flooding
• looking for blockages and clearing them before they cause flooding
• checking for defects in our pipes and fixing them before they become a problem
• installing telemetry devices which give us an early warning 
• promoting what can and can't be flushed down the loo.

Find out how you can help keep Yorkshire Blockage free

What is it and why do we measure it?

We want to make sure our operations don’t harm the environment. This performance commitment measures the number of pollution incidents caused by our wastewater assets, for every 10,000km of our wastewater network. This is a calendar year measure from January to December.

How are we doing?

We're currently not on track to achieve our year-end target.

This performance commitment is measured on a calendar year basis, so this should be our final position for 2023. We haven't achieved our target, which is disappointing, but we've improved on our 2022 performance which is encouraging to see. We'll take learnings from this and improve our performance next year.

What is it and why do we measure it?

We want to make sure we don’t harm our environment. We have permits that control our discharges into watercourses. This performance commitment measures the percentage of our treatment works that comply with their discharge permits. This is a calendar year measure from January to December.

How are we doing?

We're currently not on track to achieve our year-end target.

This performance commitment is measured on a calendar year basis, so this should be our final position for 2023. We finished the year with one fail at our Flaxton treatment works. Although no failings are acceptable, this level of performance is significantly better than last year's.

What is it and why do we measure it?

To become more sustainable, we’ve been using the biogas that’s created through our sewage treatment processes to make our own electricity. This performance commitment measures the amount of energy we’ve created from our biogas, in gigawatt-hours.

How are we doing?

We're currently not on track to achieve our year-end target.

We experienced a slow start to the year which put us on the back foot. However, the gap between our performance and target is getting smaller and we expect to achieve our target by year-end.

What is it and why do we measure it?

In our drive to reduce waste and recycle everything we can, this performance commitment measures the extra environmental, social and financial benefit (in £m) we create from our resources that are under-used or classed as waste. Waste resources include grit that builds up in our sewer network, sludge that’s created when we treat our water and wastewater, heat lost to the natural environment and many more.

How are we doing?

We don't have any data to report yet.

This performance commitment is reported on an annual basis and the results are published in July.

What is it and why do we measure it?

As part of our drive to reduce carbon emissions in the UK, this performance commitment measures the drop in net operational carbon equivalent emissions compared to our performance in 2019-20. This includes any greenhouse gas emissions created by our day to day operational activities like the electricity we use, fuel we put into our vehicles and emissions created when we treat our water and sewage. We report our progress in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions and a lower number is better.

How are we doing?

We're currently on track to achieve our year-end target.

Our performance continues to be strong against this commitment. So far this year, we've greatly reduced our gas consumption which puts us in a strong position for the remainder of the year. 

What is it and why do we measure it?

Water companies invest millions of pounds every year in improving and building new assets, we call this our capital investment programme. This programme makes sure we’ve got enough drinking water and we can take away and treat all the wastewater. We also own a lot of land in Yorkshire.

This performance commitment measures the drop in carbon emissions from the delivery of our capital investment programme and the carbon emissions that come from land we own. It’s a whole-AMP measure which covers the 2020-25 period, and we compare it to our performance in 2020-21.

To give you a measure of our progress, we’ve broken up the whole-AMP target into yearly targets and we report our progress in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions.

How are we doing?

We're currently not on track to achieve our year-end target.

Our capital carbon omission volume is still higher than we'd like it to be. However, we're significantly closing the gap between our performance and our target. We expect to see a strong final quarter to bring us back to target by year-end.

What is it and why do we measure it?

We want to make sure our customers get value for their money, so this performance commitment measures the percentage of customers who think their water bill is affordable.

How are we doing?

We don't have any data to report yet.

This performance commitment is reported on an annual basis and the results are published in July.

What is it and why do we measure it?

It’s important we do everything we can to control bad debt. This performance commitment shows how much bad debt costs our bill-paying customers. This cost covers interest on revenue that’s not collected, debt written off and debt management costs. The cost of bad debt is shown as a percentage of the average annual household bill.

How are we doing?

We're currently on track to achieve our year-end target.

To help minimise this cost for our customers, we have a range of schemes to help those who struggle to pay their bill and strong processes for debt collection. Lots of customers are using these schemes, which is resulting in strong performance against this measure.

What is it and why do we measure it?

We need to make sure we’re billing everyone who uses our water so our charges are fair.

Void properties are buildings that we believe are empty and we don’t bill them, so it’s important our records are up to date. This performance commitment measures the number of void household properties as a percentage of the total number of household properties served.

How are we doing?

We're currently on track to achieve our year-end target.

Our continuous focus on the validation of void properties and ensuring our billing is accurate, is helping us maintain strong level of performance against this measure. This level of performance is expected to continue throughout the rest of the year.

What is it and why do we measure it?

We need to make sure we’re billing everyone who uses our water so that our charges are fair. A gap site is a property that is not on our billing records and doesn’t receive a water bill at the moment. This performance commitment measures the gap sites identified and billed in the last 12 months as a percentage of the total number of gap sites identified.

How are we doing?

We're currently on track to achieve our year-end target.

Our high success rate has continued and we're confident we'll exceed our end-of-year target.

What is it and why do we measure it?

C-MeX measures how satisfied our household customers are. We’re ranked against the other water companies. 1st is the top spot and 17th is last place.

How are we doing?

We're currently not on track to achieve our year-end target.

During this quarter, we've improved our performance from 15th to 11th place. However, we're not satisfied with 11th place and we'll continue to drive improvements and climb further up the rankings. Plans are in place to make this happen and we expect to see some results of these in the final quarter of the year.

What is it and why do we measure it?

D-MeX measures how satisfied our developer services customers are. We’re ranked against the other water companies. 1st is the top spot and 17th is last place. There isn't a regulatory target for this performance commitment. 

How are we doing?

We're currently not on track to achieve our year-end target.

Lots of improvements have been made to our processes to drive us up the rankings for this performance commitment. We've seen significant improvements in our monthly scores, but this measure is calculated as a whole year and our slow start and low position in the first quarter has really held us back. We expect a strong finish to the year and we'll continue to improve next year.

What is it and why do we measure it?

We want to make sure we’re finding and supporting the customers who need help paying their bills. This performance commitment measures how many household customers get financial support from one of our schemes each year.

How are we doing?

We're currently on track to achieve our year-end target.

We continue to perform strongly against this measure, with a further 8,610 customers supported in this quarter. We expect this level of performance to continue to year-end.

What is it and why do we measure it?

Our Priority Services Register offers free extra services for our vulnerable customers who need them. We want to make sure our customers know this extra help is available, so this performance commitment measures the percentage of household customers who are aware of our Priority Services Register.

How are we doing?

We don't have any data to report yet.

This performance commitment is reported on an annual basis and the results are published in July.

What is it and why do we measure it?

Our Priority Services Register offers free extra services for our vulnerable customers who need them. We want to make sure our vulnerable customers are using this service, so this performance commitment measures the percentage of household customers who are getting support from through our Priority Services Register.

How are we doing?

We're currently not on track to achieve our year-end target.

The cost of living crisis highlights the importance of helping our most vulnerable customers, so we're doing lots of work to improve our performance against this commitment. We now have 104,061 properties on our Priority Service Register, receiving direct support. We're below target but hope to bring our levels closer to target by year-end.

What is it and why do we measure it?

Our Priority Services Register offers free extra services for our vulnerable customers who need them. Once our venerable customers are on our Priority Services Register, we want to make sure they’re happy with the services we offer and they’re getting the help they need. This performance commitment measures the percentage of household customers on the register who are satisfied with our service.

How are we doing?

We don't have any data to report yet.

This performance commitment is reported on an annual basis and the results are published in July.

What is it and why do we measure it?

To make sure we keep improving, this performance commitment measures the percentage of improvement in the services we offer to our vulnerable customers.

How are we doing?

We don't have any data to report yet.

This performance commitment is reported on an annual basis and the results are published in July.

What is it and why do we measure it?

This measures the area of land conserved and enhanced in our region. We do this through land management and biodiversity focused projects and investments.

How are we doing?

We're currently not on track to achieve our year-end target.

Although this quarter saw 37.29ha signed up to our Beyond Nature scheme, we haven't met our year-to-date target. However, we do expect to see significant improvements in performance in the final quarter of the year.

What is it and why do we measure it?

We’re working with stakeholders to implement our ‘Natural Capital Operator’ approach. This collaborative approach ensures our natural resources are used wisely and investment and management decisions are managed between stakeholders.

This performance commitment measures the percentage of our catchments where the ‘Natural Capital Operator’ approach has been implemented.

How are we doing?

We're currently on track to achieve our year-end target.

This measure looks at long-term schemes and strategies that will be carried out towards the end of the 2020-2025 period. We don't expect to see any results until next year.

What is it and why do we measure it?

Improving our environment benefits everyone in Yorkshire. We’re working hard to improve river water quality and this performance commitment measures the length of river we’ve improved in the 2020-25 period.

How are we doing?

We're currently on track to achieve our year-end target.

Although there's been no movement since our last update, we remain firmly on track against this performance commitment and we're already exceeding our year-end target. We also have projects in place to improve our position even further in the final quarter of the year.

What is it and why do we measure it?

As part of a national drive to reduce the spread of INNS (non-native invasive species), this performance commitment looks at our biosecurity interventions that have reduced the risk of that spread.

How are we doing?

We're currently not on track to achieve our year-end target.

Unfortunately we've just dipped below target for this performance commitment. However, with one quarter remaining of the year, we hope to turn this around.

What is it and why do we measure it?

This performance commitment measures how many of our bathing waters meet or exceed the European Union Bathing Water Directive water quality requirements.

How are we doing?

We're currently not on track to achieve our year-end target.

Our Tunstall bathing water is currently unable to be sampled because of severe coastal erosion and is classified as 'Unassessed'. Bridlington South and Scarborough South remain ‘sufficient’.

What is it and why do we measure it?

Improving Yorkshire's resilience to flooding is important to us and our customers. This performance commitment measures the total area of surface water run-off that has been removed or reduced using blue-green infrastructure solutions or surface water disconnection.

How are we doing?

We don't have any data to report yet.

This performance commitment is reported on an annual basis and the results are published in July.

What is it and why do we measure it?

We need to make sure that all bioproducts (biosolids) from our sewage treatment processes meet the right environmental standards. This performance commitment measures the percentage of overall biosolids sent to land that meet the Biosolids Assurance Scheme (BAS) accreditation.

How are we doing?

We're currently on track to achieve our year-end target.

All the biosolids we recycled to agriculture were compliant with the high standards of the Biosolids Assurance Scheme.

What is it and why do we measure it?

Part of our investment between 2020 and 2025 will improve our impact on the environment. The Environment Agency tells us what we need to achieve through their Water Industry Environment Programme (WINEP). This performance commitment measures how many WINEP projects we’ve completed each year.

How are we doing?

We're currently on track to achieve our year-end target.

Our performance has remained strong against this measure, with a further 12 projects delivered in this quarter.