Living With Water is a partnership of five organisations – Yorkshire Water, Hull City Council, East Riding of Yorkshire Council, the Environment Agency and the University of Hull – who work together to increase flood resilience across our region for the long-term.
We’re not a single organisation and we’re not a government department. We’re a collaboration, brought together because the scale of the challenge is too big for anybody to tackle alone.
Our overall goal isn’t to eliminate flood risk, because no engineering can do that. It’s to increase our resilience to potential floods in the future and build a region that understands its relationship with water.
It’s something every resident, school, business and community group in Hull and the East Riding has a part in.
How we work
We work with local residents to help shape what we deliver, from the design of schemes on their street to the planting choices in their local green space. We run education programmes in schools, hold drop-in events across the area and provide resources to help households take practical steps of their own.
Most of our work so far has focused on sustainable drainage, installing systems across Hull and the East Riding that slow the flow of surface water into the sewer network.
Permeable streets, detention basins in green spaces, rain gardens and swales in school grounds are just some of the projects we’ve already completed.
What we've done so far
Our story goes back to the floods of 2007, which hit our region hard. Nearly 9,000 properties flooded across Hull alone and the damage to our region as a whole highlighted the need for a coordinated, long-term response.
This led to the Living With Water partnership being formed, with the five partners committing to invest more than £200 million on flood risk reduction projects in Hull and Haltemprice as part of a 25-year plan.
Since then, we’ve already spent over £20 million in helping communities across Hull and the East Riding to become more flood resilient. Here’s a quick guide to our story so far.
2018
Living With Water formally established, bringing together five key partners to jointly deliver the Blue-Green Plan.
2019
The Living With Water website launches on World Water Day to help residents become more involved in plans.
2021
Living With Water Community Hub opens at Wilberforce Sixth Form College — an interactive education and engagement space for schools and residents across the region.
2023
Rosmead Street project completed – Hull’s first fully permeable paved street, the first scheme under the Blue-Green Plan and winner of an ICE Yorkshire & Humber Certificate of Excellence.
2025
Derringham scheme completed. Six aqua greens storing 6,500m³ of surface water across west Hull.
2025
£26.3m investment announced for 2025-2030 – the next phase of the Blue-Green Plan, including roadside SuDS, blue-green corridors and a new tidal pumping station.
2026
Hull’s first urban SuDS basin fully opens in the newly refurbished Queen’s Gardens, incorporating over 330 trees, rainwater harvesting and visible water channels in the heart of the city centre.
What we're planning next
Yorkshire Water is investing a further £26.3 million in the next phase of our plan until 2030, which focuses on the west of Hull and the East Riding.
Work has already started and will include several projects to redirect surface water through existing or newly created blue-green corridors, as well as building a new tidal pumping station to discharge this water directly into the Humber when tides are too high for it to drain naturally.
This is all part of the Blue-Green Plan – our long-term vision for how to manage surface water across our region.
