United Utilities (UU) is a FTSE100 company delivering essential water and wastewater services to around eight million customers and 200,000 businesses across the North West of England. With more than 7,000 colleagues working across our sites and offices from Crewe to Carlisle, we continue to build an inclusive, supportive and high‑performing workplace. 2026 is the second year of our next five-year plan as a business (2025–30) delivering £13 billion of investment, the largest programme in 100 years, improving our infrastructure for our region we serve (North West).
In 2025, we refreshed our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion strategy under the banner of Opportunity for All. Our focus on strong leadership, transparent reporting and a culture of belonging is helping us create an environment where every colleague can thrive.
In 2025, we maintained our fourth place ranking in the Inclusive Top 50 UK Employers Index, the highest‑ranked water and utility company. This achievement builds on a year of recognition, including:
– Diversity and Inclusion Initiative award winner – July 2025 Water Industry Awards
– Outstanding Employer award winner – July 2025 Water Industry Awards
– Outstanding Employer Award highly commended – September 2025 Employer’s Excellence Awards (in association with Metro)
– We were also recognised as an Accredited Member of the Fair Employment Charter (Liverpool City Region), demonstrating our commitment to fair, healthy, just and inclusive employment practices.
These accolades reflect our continued commitment to fostering a truly inclusive culture.
Our focus on equity and inclusion is reinforced by strong colleague feedback. In our 2026 engagement survey, we achieved a 93% overall engagement score for inclusion, with 95% of colleagues agreeing that UU supports diversity and inclusion – both scores significantly above the UK high performing, norm and utilities sector benchmarks. Plus our current Glassdoor rating is 4.6 out of 5, with over 90% of reviewers saying they would recommend working at UU to a friend.
Finally, we have strengthened our contribution to the region through enhanced community partnerships and cross‑industry collaboration, supporting wider societal progress in diversity and inclusion. This commitment will continue to shape our activity over the next 12 months
At United Utilities we are lucky enough to currently have 15 colleague networks and support groups, all run by volunteers with lived experiences, providing peer support, raising awareness and champion inclusion across the organisation. External community participation has expanded further this year with involvement in charity and community events (supporting mental health), plus careers fairs around our region.
Our colleague networks have strengthened our ongoing menopause support with awareness training, providing personal hygiene products in workplace facilities and discounted hormone testing packages. We continued our strong focus on men’s mental health awareness training to minimise potential risks within our sector. Additionally, this year we have worked to normalise men’s health within the workplace, discussing prostate cancer and men’s mental health frequently, introducing sanitary waste bins in men’s toilets at multi‑occupancy sites to support colleagues undergoing prostate cancer treatment.
In 2025, equity, diversity and inclusion was introduced as a key category within the BS ISO 22458:2022 Consumer Vulnerability accreditation. We were highly commended for demonstrating the strong link between colleague experience and customer experience – recognising that when colleagues are well supported, they are better equipped to deliver high‑quality service to customers with additional needs.
