Yorkshire Water announces new Board appointments

Yorkshire Water has today announced the appointments of two Independent Non-Executive Directors, Basil Scarsella and Dr. Tony Ballance, to join its Board. Both bring extensive experience of leading operational performance and transformation across regulated infrastructure businesses. They joined the Board on 7th and 14th August 2026 respectively.

 
The announcement follows the news that Jonathan Lewis has been appointed as Non-Executive Director and Chair Designate and will become Chair of Yorkshire Water from 1 October 2026, succeeding Vanda Murray OBE DBA through a planned handover. 

The new appointments follow a governance review to reflect the company’s transition following the first year of AMP 8, its new ownership arrangements and the scale of the ongoing £8.3 billion investment programme. 

Basil Scarsella, Chief Executive of UK Power Networks, brings more than 30 years' experience in the regulated energy sector, with a proven track record of delivering large-scale organisational transformation and operational excellence. Under his leadership, UK Power Networks has consistently been recognised as one of the UK's highest-performing utilities for customer service and indeed is the only utility in the top UK Customer Service Institute’s top 10. Before leading UKPN, Basil lived in Yorkshire and served as CEO of Northern Gas Network. 

Dr. Tony Ballance joins the Board alongside his role as Chief Strategy & Regulation Officer at Cadent Gas - the largest of the UK’s gas distribution businesses, where he leads the company’s work to deliver Net Zero through their decarbonisation strategy. He brings deep expertise in strategy, regulation, sustainability and performance improvement in the utility and environmental sectors. He played a significant role in shaping Severn Trent's thought leadership on the future of the water sector and driving sustained operational performance across his 15-year tenure there, including eight years as a plc Board member, where he played a major role in the company’s regulatory relationships whilst helping drive significant performance improvements. Tony has a background as an economic consultant in the utilities sector, focusing on regulation and reform as well as having been Ofwat’s Chief Economist in his early career. He is also a Non-Executive Director of Flood Re. 

Jonathan Lewis, Chair Designate commented:  "On behalf of the Board, I am delighted to welcome Basil and Tony. They bring a wealth of experience, insight and expertise that will be invaluable as Yorkshire Water continues to deliver on its commitments to customers, communities and the environment during an important period for the business. 

“I look forward to working closely with the Board, Nicola and the executive team as we maintain our focus on delivering excellent service, driving long-term improvements in performance and creating positive outcomes for our customers and the environment." 

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