Cadent has confirmed investment of more than £75million to modernise around 385km of its North West pipeline over the next 12 months (April 2025 to March 2026).
This is around the same straight-line distance as Liverpool to Dover, or the length of 3,600 football pitches, or the height of more than 2,400 Blackpool Towers.
The work will be delivered by around 600 skilled engineers.
It includes 18.6km of work in Blackpool, 10.3km in South Ribble, 10km in Chorley, 7.7km in Wyre, 6.8km in Lancaster, 3km in Preston and 2.7km in Fylde.
Upgrading the North West network means 2.7 million properties receive a safe and reliable gas supply for many years to come.
Homes, schools, hospitals and other buildings use gas for heat and hot water, some of the region’s biggest industries need it to power production processes, and it is the fuel of choice for rising numbers of HGV fleets.
“The majority of homes in the North West rely on gas for central heating and it’s our job to make sure they get it, safely and reliably, every minute of every day of the year,” said Mark Syers, Head of Work Management (North West), who leads the team delivering Cadent’s gas mains upgrade work in the region.
“As our older stock reaches the end of its safe working life, we must replace it.
“These upgrades also mean big environmental gains for the region, as it reduces methane emissions and enables a move to more renewable gases like biomethane. This is essential for a cleaner future – the UK will need energy to come from a range of sources to meet demand and be sustainable.”
The work is part of a 30-year programme, which started in 2002, to upgrade the entire UK gas network.
Every year, Cadent replaces around 1.5 per cent of the 34,000km of pipes in the North West, which are mostly underneath the region’s roads.
Mark Syers added: “In most cases – around 95 per cent of the time – we are able to insert the new plastic pipe into the old metallic one. This technique reduces the time of each project and we don’t have to dig as much, which means less disruption for local communities.
“The upgrades also mean an end to what can often become return visits – with associated disruption – to repair faults on the older metallic mains, as they start to show signs of age.
“We know roadworks aren’t ideal, but my team is determined to move as quickly as they safely can and get the work done with as little disruption as possible.”
By distance, the ‘top five’ workload areas for 2025-26 are: Wirral (40,668 metres), Liverpool (30,844 metres), Manchester (26,228 metres), St Helens (19,952 metres), and Wigan (19,196 metres).
You will find the figures for each of the North West’s local authority areas in the table below.
Metres of pipe to be upgraded in 2025-26, by local authority area:
| Wirral | 40668 |
| Liverpool | 30844 |
| Manchester | 26228 |
| St Helens | 19952 |
| Wigan | 19196 |
| Stockport | 18744 |
| Blackpool | 18649 |
| Tameside | 15718 |
| Sefton | 15203 |
| Bolton | 14603 |
| Salford | 12137 |
| Halton | 11937 |
| Warrington | 11937 |
| Bury | 10738 |
| South Ribble | 10308 |
| Oldham | 10004 |
| Chorley | 9955 |
| Rochdale | 9688 |
| Knowsley | 8352 |
| Macclesfield | 7927 |
| Wyre | 7741 |
| Trafford | 7047 |
| Ellesmere Port and Neston | 6953 |
| Lancaster | 6783 |
| Blackburn with Darwen | 6239 |
| Crewe and Nantwich | 6175 |
| Pendle | 5831 |
| Rossendale | 5347 |
| Burnley | 4797 |
| High Peak | 4373 |
| Barrow-in-Furness | 4100 |
| South Lakeland | 3199 |
| Preston | 3050 |
| Ribble Valley | 2944 |
| Cheshire West and Chester | 2889 |
| Fylde | 2696 |
| West Lancashire | 2443 |
| Hyndburn | 2024 |
| Cheshire East | 1848 |
| Flintshire | 1201 |
How the work is planned and delivered
Cadent works with the local highways authorities to agree the best and least disruptive timings to carry out these essential upgrades. It will also collaborate with other utilities, to find opportunities to work together in the same set of roadworks.
Once start dates have been confirmed, letters are sent to properties impacted ahead of the work starting. Customers are asked to rate the service given, with last year’s North West scores averaging 9.17 out of 10 (verified results are pending).
Part of the programme also involves replacing individual ‘service’ pipes of tens of thousands of properties at no extra cost for customers. Cadent makes all the arrangements and gives advance notice of when work will happen.
Gas remains on throughout, although in some cases properties that take a direct feed from the pipe being replaced will lose supply for up to 12 hours, as their building is connected to the new main. Customer teams are on hand to answer questions and support customers – particularly those on the Priority Services Register.
Cadent operates four of the UK’s eight gas distribution networks – North West England, West Midlands, Eastern England and North London.
Its North West network stretches from the Lake District to Crewe and is home to 34,000km of distribution pipes (most of them underground) and hundreds of above ground installations. If placed end to end, that amount of pipes would stretch from North West England to Sydney, Australia, and back again.
Around £800m will be invested in the North West’s gas network over the current five-year Ofgem-regulated period. This will maintain safe, secure supplies to homes, hospitals, schools, offices and other sites, as well as support the UK’s targets to reduce carbon emissions and build cleaner, greener energy networks.