Sewage discharged for 430,000 hours by Yorkshire Water last year - a 17% reduction on 2023

The number of monitored sewage spills also reduced from 77,761 in 2023 to 68,164 in 2024.

However, this still meant Yorkshire Water was the second worst company for sewage spills in England and Wales after United Utilities.

The company currently has a “red” rating for pollution with the EA.

This was the first full year that all storm overflows have been monitored, and the data was released today with bills set to rise by almost a third next month.

Nicola Shaw, CEO of Yorkshire Water, said: “We know overflows are operating more than we, or our customers, would like, but we’re pleased to begin to show progress on reducing storm overflow activity in our region.

“The reductions in discharges in 2024 resulted from both a drier year than 2023 and the hard work of our teams to deliver our £180m investment programme.”

Yorkshire Water said it has invested in 142 storm overflows across the region to reduce discharges and improve water quality.

This project, which was partly funded by shareholders, has helped contribute to the reduction in discharges, the firm said, by focusing on the worst overflows.

Yorkshire had a bigger reduction in spills than the rest of the country, with there being a 3 per cent decrease nationally in 2024 compared with 2023.

While, across England and Wales, the duration of the sewage discharges increased very slightly - by 0.2 per cent.

These figures were branded as “disgraceful” by Environment Secretary Steve Reed, and a “stark reminder of how years of under-investment have led to water companies discharging unacceptable levels of sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas”.

Mr Reed pointed to “tough special measures” the Government had put on water companies, and said more than £100bn in private funding had been secured for the next five years to invest in the water system.

But with high public anger over the polluted and degraded state of England’s rivers, lakes and seas, and significant bill rises coming next month to pay for the investment, campaigners and opposition politicians called for wholesale reform of the water sector and its regulators.

Ilkley Beach currently has the highest level of untreated sewage anywhere in the UK.

Giles Bristow, chief executive at Surfers Against Sewage said: “Without transformational change of the industry, how can we trust that any investment is going to improve water quality? How do we know that we aren’t still going to be swimming in sewage in 2040?”

He said the level of pollution is “not normal, it’s a disgrace” and said: “We demand radical reform, we demand an end to profit from pollution and we demand that the government listens to the voices of water users, who are absolutely sick of paying their bills only to risk getting sick themselves.”

Conservation charity River Action’s chief executive James Wallace described the numbers as “staggering”, saying they equated to 412 years of sewage polluting the country’s rivers, lakes and seas.

“Rather than fixing leaky pipes and investing in infrastructure, these companies have treated our rivers and coastlines like an open sewer and regulators have let them get away with it,” he said, calling for “real reform” of the sector.

And Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said the figures had to be the “final nail in the coffin” for water regulator Ofwat.

“The Government should act now to get a new regulator in place to protect British rivers and seas from being pumped with disgusting sewage. It’s time for Ofwat to go,” he said.