Tom Gordon, Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, said Shaw should have stepped down "much earlier".

"Good riddance. Nicola Shaw oversaw abysmal management of our precious natural resources, trashing our rivers while receiving an eye-watering salary," he said.

"Her replacement needs to understand that residents are at their wits' end, paying ever-rising bills for polluted rivers and threats of hosepipe bans while someone at the top rakes in millions."

Meanwhile, Judith Cummins, Labour MP for Bradford South, said Yorkshire Water needed "more than a change of leadership" but a "complete change of direction".

"A new face at the top cannot wash away years of Yorkshire Water failing to put customers first," she said.

"Nicola Shaw's time as Yorkshire Water boss saw customers frustrated by poor service, skyrocketing bills, record pollution incidents, and a plummet from 'good' to the worst possible one-star environment rating.

"There must be a wholesale shift in culture that finally prioritises customers. Only then can the company begin to restore public trust."

Robbie Moore, Conservative MP for Keighley and Ilkley, said Shaw's resignation "could not have come quick enough".

He added: "I have therefore already requested an urgent meeting with the new CEO Designate Nicola Medalova to understand how she plans to improve Yorkshire Water's performance at speed.

"The status quo cannot continue."

Chris Stewart at York campaign group Ouse It Lose It said the new CEO's priority had to be looking at "failures in the system".

"There's been a continual decline in the operation of this business," he said.

"Clearly things are going wrong."

Stewart said he was not surprised by Shaw's resignation but it was a "shocking indictment of the way the company has been performing, while making loud noises about how much they're putting into improving".

Naomi Tilley, campaigns manager at protest group Surfers Against Sewage, said "systematic change" was needed to fix the company.

"Regardless of who the CEO is, there's sewage entering the sea and the water companies are failing. Yorkshire Water is not an outlier," said Tilley.

"The whole system and every water company is failing in different ways and we are seeing that the system is broken and we need fundamental change.

"While these companies are set up for a profit, we're never going to see pollution curbed and stopped."

Additional reporting by David Rhodes and Grace Wood

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