United Utilities is stepping up its investment plans for the North West of England and asking shareholders to help pay for it. On 30 April 2026, alongside its full-year results, the UK water company announced that its five-year capital programme will grow from around £9 billion to roughly £11.5 billion, an extra £2.5 billion earmarked for new homes, industrial growth and stronger, more resilient infrastructure.
To fund the equity portion of that extra spending, the company is launching an £800 million share placing. The structure is designed to keep debt within United Utilities' target range of 55–65% gearing throughout the AMP8 regulatory period. The original £9 billion programme had already been fully funded.
The new investment will flow through Ofwat's "Re-opener" process, which allows water companies to ask the regulator to approve additional spending mid-period. United Utilities has submitted £1.4 billion to Ofwat now, with another £1.2 billion expected in further submissions over the next two years. Ofwat's draft decision is expected on 15 August 2026 and the final decision on 15 December 2026.
The current submission breaks down into three parts. A £770 million growth programme will deliver new water infrastructure for data centres in East Manchester (£200 million), a non-potable water supply for the clean energy cluster in Ellesmere Port (£220 million), and wastewater capacity upgrades at 34 sites to serve 66,000 new homes (£350 million). On top of that, £410 million will go into proactive replacement of ageing assets — gravity sewers, water storage, trickling filters, rapid gravity filters and boreholes — and £190 million is set aside for projects around Windermere and for strategic water resources.
Louise Beardmore, Chief Executive of United Utilities, said: "One year into our most ambitious investment programme, we have made a strong start delivering £1.5 billion of capital investment in FY26 and mobilising over 100 supply chain partners to achieve our regulatory commitments on time. We are committed to supporting a stronger, greener, healthier North West, and the plans we are announcing today will do exactly that. We expect it could create a further 4,000 jobs across our supply chain, on top of the 30,000 supported by our existing AMP8 programme."
Alongside the new investment, the company has also raised its financial targets: regulatory returns are now expected to reach 10–11% in AMP8 (up by one percentage point from previous guidance), and the asset base is forecast to grow by around 10% a year through 2030, up from the 7% previously expected. Dividend growth will continue in line with inflation (CPIH).
The numbers behind the announcement are strong. For the year to 31 March 2026, United Utilities reported underlying revenue of £2,576 million (up 20%), underlying operating profit of £1,060 million (up 35%) and underlying earnings per share of 107.1p (up 42%). On the operational side, spills fell 23% and internal sewer flooding incidents dropped 42%.
