Welsh Water to cut about 500 jobs as it plans £4bn frontline investment

Welsh Water plans to cut about 500 jobs over the next two years, saying the reductions — roughly 12% of its 4,000-strong workforce — will focus on back-office and management roles and will not affect front-line services.

The not-for-profit organisation said most of the job losses are expected to follow a process of voluntary redundancy. Chief executive Peter Perry acknowledged the move will be an "unsettling time" for colleagues and said the company would handle the process with "care, compassion and fairness." He added that the measure is intended to increase efficiency so that more customer money goes into essential services.

"Customers rightly expect us to invest in improving our services and to keep our own costs to a minimum – and that's exactly what this programme will achieve," Perry said. "We are acting now so we can protect services for customers, investing more in our networks and the environment and ensure that as much of our customers' money as possible goes into the things that matter most - reliable water and wastewater services and support when people need us."

Welsh Water said it will aim to shield front-line operations from disruption while reallocating resources from administration and management to operational priorities. The organisation also announced plans to invest about £4 billion in frontline services over the next five years, with more than half of that funding earmarked for environmental performance.

The company did not provide a full timetable for the redundancies beyond the two-year window, but said it hoped voluntary measures would limit compulsory redundancies. It described the exercise as part of a wider efficiency programme to reduce overheads and channel funds toward network improvements and environmental initiatives.

As a not-for-profit water and sewerage provider, Welsh Water said the decisions are intended to balance ongoing investment needs with cost control, aiming to maintain or improve services while managing customers' bills. The announcement follows a period of heightened scrutiny of utility performance and environmental obligations, and the company framed the changes as a step to ensure continued investment in networks and environmental compliance.

Welsh Water did not detail how savings from the staffing changes will be allocated across specific projects within the £4 billion plan, nor did it provide granular figures on expected costs of the redundancy programme. The firm said it would provide further information to affected employees and stakeholders as the programme progresses.

The company serves households and businesses across Wales and has previously drawn attention for the scale of investment required to address ageing infrastructure and environmental targets. By shifting administrative and managerial roles, Welsh Water said it seeks to prioritise spending on operations that directly affect customers' water and wastewater services and environmental outcomes.