United Utilities and Climate-Resilient Blue-Green Infrastructure
United Utilities and Climate-Resilient Blue-Green Infrastructure in North West England
TL;DR: United Utilities is responding to a non-stationary climate by combining long-range adaptive planning, blue-green infrastructure and demand-side measures to deliver drought resilience and overflow reductions for North West England, while supporting regional economic value through its current investment programme.
The global climate can no longer be treated as a stationary backdrop for infrastructure design, as historical weather data increasingly fails to predict future extremes. For cities, non-stationarity translates into more intense rainfall and longer droughts that stress legacy drainage and water supply systems. This volatility is accelerating a shift away from concrete-only expansion towards modular, adaptive and hybrid infrastructure that combines grey assets with nature-based solutions. United Utilities Water Limited is positioning North West England at the forefront of this transition through a climate-resilient planning and investment approach extending to 2100.
Non-Stationary Climate and Adaptive Planning
At system level, United Utilities recognises that climate non-stationarity invalidates design assumptions based solely on historic hydrology, requiring infrastructure to be planned against a wider envelope of extremes. The Water Resources Management Plan 2024 sets out a strategy to ensure supplies remain adequate from 2025 onwards while meeting a new requirement for one-in-500-year drought resilience by 2039, moving beyond the previous one-in-200-year design standard. To operationalise this shift, Digital Twins and scenario modelling are used to test how higher temperatures and altered rainfall patterns affect regional water availability and network performance over multiple decades.
This approach matters because North West England already faces distinct hydrological pressures, including higher average rainfall, heavy storm events and localised surface water flooding that challenge conventional drainage and storage assets. Treating climate extremes as baseline design inputs allows United Utilities to justify earlier and more ambitious interventions on leakage, demand reduction and new supply options, rather than relying on incremental upgrades after service failures. The result is a portfolio that combines operational changes, customer-facing efficiency measures and targeted infrastructure schemes to close projected supply–demand deficits while building system-wide resilience.
Governance and trade-offs sit at the intersection of regulatory expectations, environmental obligations and affordability for customers across a relatively diverse region. The WRMP24 framework requires United Utilities to balance investment in drought resilience, abstraction reduction and environmental destination objectives, while also supporting national water transfer capability where needed. Decisions about the pace of implementation, the mix of grey and green options and the distribution of costs over time are therefore central to how resilience outcomes are delivered and monitored through to 2050 and beyond.
Blue-Green Infrastructure, SuDS and Storm Overflow Control
In practice, United Utilities is moving away from a build-and-expand model by embedding blue-green infrastructure and Sustainable Drainage Systems into its programmes, including the Advanced Water Industry National Environment Programme. Blue-green assets such as rain gardens, swales, permeable paving and blue-green roofs are used to retain, infiltrate or slow rainfall at source, diverting water away from combined sewers and reducing flood risk in dense urban areas. These measures complement traditional network upgrades by lowering peak flows, improving water quality and creating co-benefits for urban liveability and biodiversity.
Alongside source control, the company is targeting a step change in storm overflow performance, committing to more than a 60 per cent reduction in activations across the North West by 2030 through storage, network optimisation and nature-based solutions. Recent event duration monitoring data already shows material reductions in spill duration and frequency as new schemes come online, supported by sustainable drainage projects and treatment upgrades. The broader infrastructure investment programme, coupled with these blue-green and SuDS interventions, is projected to generate significant economic value for the region as it strengthens resilience, protects environmental assets and supports jobs.
United Utilities’ Water Resources Management Plan 2024 commits to delivering one-in-500-year drought resilience for North West England’s water supplies by 2039.
Take-Out
United Utilities shows how a regional water company can treat climate non-stationarity as a design constraint, using adaptive planning, blue-green infrastructure and WRMP24 drought standards to hard-wire resilience into long-term investment. This integrated approach offers a replicable pathway for cities seeking to manage rainfall extremes, protect water security and capture wider economic benefits.
Expert Follow-Up Questions
How is climate non-stationarity managed by United Utilities within WRMP24?
Climate non-stationarity is managed by United Utilities through a Water Resources Management Plan that explicitly plans for one-in-500-year drought events by 2039, rather than relying on historic one-in-200-year design standards. The plan uses advanced forecasting, scenario analysis and Digital Twins to assess how changing temperature and rainfall patterns affect deployable output, then sequences leakage reduction, demand management and supply options to maintain adequate headroom under more extreme climate futures.
How is blue-green infrastructure delivered by United Utilities across North West England?
Blue-green infrastructure is delivered by United Utilities through schemes that integrate rain gardens, swales, permeable paving and blue-green roofs into streets, public spaces and private developments so rainfall is captured, infiltrated or slowed before entering sewers. These assets are deployed via programmes such as the Advanced Water Industry National Environment Programme and dedicated rainwater management funds, with projects in towns like Altrincham and Blackpool demonstrating how SuDS components reduce runoff volumes, improve flood resilience and enhance local urban environments.
How is one-in-500-year drought resilience delivered by United Utilities by 2039?
One-in-500-year drought resilience is delivered by United Utilities mainly through significant leakage reduction and sustained demand management measures set out in WRMP24, rather than large new supply schemes alone. The plan targets progressive reductions in per capita consumption and non-household use, improves levels of service for temporary use bans and drought permits, and develops options for future water transfers, collectively ensuring that the regional system can withstand more severe and prolonged droughts while protecting the environment.
How is storm overflow performance delivered by United Utilities to meet 2030 targets?
Storm overflow performance is delivered by United Utilities through a combination of increased storage, network optimisation, treatment upgrades and nature-based drainage interventions that reduce the volume of stormwater entering combined sewers. The company has committed to cutting storm overflow activations by more than 60 per cent by 2030 as part of its investment plan, supported by schemes that enhance event duration monitoring, expand sustainable drainage and improve the hydraulic capacity and control of key network assets across over 1,100 overflow locations.
How is regional economic value delivered by United Utilities’ climate-resilient investment?
Regional economic value is delivered by United Utilities through an infrastructure investment programme that underpins jobs, supply-chain activity and environmental quality while safeguarding essential water services against climate shocks. By reducing flood and drought risks, improving river health and enhancing urban environments through blue-green infrastructure and SuDS, the programme supports business continuity, attracts inward investment and contributes to long-term growth, with the cumulative benefits for North West England estimated in the tens of billions of pounds over the coming decades.
Water Utility of the Future – United Utilities
Explore how United Utilities is operationalising climate-resilient planning, blue-green infrastructure and WRMP24 standards across North West England, including detailed scheme portfolios, hydrological modelling approaches and long-term investment pathways to 2100.
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