Our action plan for Windermere

We're committed to improving the health of water across the region, making the North West stronger, greener and healthier. Our work at Windermere, the beating heart of the Lake District National Park, is central to this approach.  

United Utilities has been working to protect and improve Windermere’s water quality for many years, taking responsibility for everything within our control and supporting others to act in any way they can to safeguard the lake for many generations to come.

We’ve been listening to what people have to say – and no-one wants to see sewage from storm overflows discharged into rivers. We get that and have ambitious plans to tackle this – getting set to deliver the largest environmental improvement in the country from 2025. We’re going even further in Windermere, and we’re proposing to invest a further £156 million to help improve and protect water quality in Windermere - bringing our total investment in Windermere to around £200 million.

Combined sewer overflows have been designed this way for many years and to avoid the risk of flooding of homes and businesses in heavy rainfall, so it will need a re-plumb of the drainage system across the North West, combined with introducing nature based solutions, such as reed beds, to achieve this.

This is similar to the switch from diesel to electric vehicles so it can’t happen overnight – but we remain committed to bringing about the improvements everyone wants to see so that we can all enjoy our region’s waterways. We will be doing more and sooner and read on to find out what we’ve done so far, the improvement that is delivering and what is coming next.

Starting at Ambleside

We’re starting work now to prepare the way for new underground storage to complement the existing treatment infrastructure at Ambleside.

Find out more about our plans