About us
Welsh Water is owned by Glas Cymru a single purpose company with no shareholders and is run solely for the benefit of customers.
Since 2001, we have been owned, financed and managed by Glas Cymru. Unique in the water and sewerage sector, Glas Cymru is a company limited by guarantee and as such has no shareholders.
The Glas Cymru business model aims to reduce Welsh Water’s asset financing cost, the water industry's single biggest cost.
Under Glas Cymru’s ownership, Welsh Water's assets and capital investment are financed by bonds and retained financial surpluses.
Financing efficiency savings to date have largely been used to build up reserves to insulate Welsh Water and its customers from any unexpected costs and also to improve credit quality so that Welsh Water’s cost of finance can be kept as low as possible in the years ahead.
Welsh Water is the sixth largest of the ten regulated water and sewerage companies in England and Wales. Responsible for providing over three million people with a continuous, high quality supply of drinking water and for taking away, treating and properly disposing of the wastewater that is produced, we are fully committed to delivering best quality service at least possible cost.
Welsh Language Scheme
Welsh Water welcomes dealing with customers and other stakeholders in both Welsh and English and is committed to providing an equally effective standard of service in both languages.
All of our publications are bilingual and we operate a dedicated Welsh language line for customers who would prefer to speak to us in Welsh, 0800 052 6058.
Our Welsh Language Scheme is registered with the Welsh Language Board.
What does not-for-profit mean?
It’s our job to look after your water. And although rain falls freely from the sky, we put a lot of work, energy and love into getting every single drop of water to you.
Then, after you’ve used it, we take your dirty water away and clean it before returning it to our beautiful rivers and seas.
But there’s more to the story.
Welsh Water is different from other water companies.
We don’t have shareholders, which means that we put every single penny we make straight back into keeping bills down and looking after your water and beautiful environment – now, and for years to come.
We think it’s a much better way of doing things.
Welsh Water. Your not-for-profit water company.
Did you know?
Welsh Water is a ‘not-for-profit company’ which has been owned by Glas Cymru since 2001. Welsh Water does not have shareholders, and any financial surpluses are reinvested in the business for the benefit of customers.
Serving
- 1.4 million homes and businesses
- 3 million people in most of Wales, Herefordshire and parts of Deeside.
- 828 million litres of water supplied every day
The company
- 4th largest company in Wales
- 3,000 employees work for Welsh Water
- £1.5 billion investment programme 2010-15
Our assets
- Maintaining over 26,500km of water mains
- Over 30,000km of sewers
- Managing over 800 wastewater treatment works
- Analysing more than 600,000 tests a year sampling drinking water
- Looking after 92 reservoirs
In the community
- 1 million visitors to our reservoir sites and visitor centres each year
- Over 164,000 children visited our education centres to date
- Looking after 40,000 hectares of land