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The Guardian
5 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Water chiefs' pay rises to average of £1.1m despite ban on bonuses and outrage over pollution
The pay of water company chief executives in England and Wales rose by 5% in the last financial year to an average of £1.1m, despite a ban on bonuses for several companies and widespread outrage over the sector's poor performance. Total pay reported by water companies reached £15m in 2024-25, up 5% on £13.8m the previous year, according to Guardian analysis of 14 companies' annual reports. Water companies have been under scrutiny in recent years over their record on the environmentally damaging discharges of sewage into Britain's rivers and seas. Politicians and campaigners have also reacted angrily to bill increases allowed in April by the regulator, Ofwat. The pay figures raise questions about the effectiveness of the government's efforts to limit water executives' pay. Ofwat gained powers last year to insist that bonuses were paid by shareholders rather than through customers' bills, before new rules in June that allowed a ban on bonuses for bosses of companies guilty of the most serious environmental damage. The biggest pay increase was enjoyed by Keith Haslett, the chief executive of Affinity Water. He was awarded an extra £844,000, doubling his total pay to £1.6m. Portsmouth Water's boss, Bob Taylor, also doubled his pay, to £754,000. Six companies – Thames Water, Anglian Water, Southern Water, United Utilities, Wessex Water and Yorkshire Water – were banned from paying bonuses for the 2024-25 financial year to their chief executives and chief financial officers. The bonus ban did appear to have an effect, with pay falling 8% to £5.5m across those six suppliers. Most of that drop was driven by Thames Water, whose boss, Chris Weston, received £1m, after he and three predecessor chief executives received a total of £1.7m the year before. Despite the bonus ban, Southern Water awarded its chief executive, Lawrence Gosden, an 80% pay increase to £1.4m. After the Guardian revealed the increase, the environment secretary, Steve Reed, said Gosden should turn down the extra money. Southern Water said the pay increase complied with the rules. A spokesperson said it was not a bonus but part of a 'two-year long-term incentive plan'. Not all the money was paid during the financial year, and he may not receive all of it if Southern fails to achieve an adequate environmental rating. Sophie Conquest, lead campaigner at We Own It, a group campaigning for public ownership of water, said: 'The public is rightly angry about the obscene levels of cash being handed over to the private water bosses. 'What has their highly valued commercial brilliance delivered for us? Water bills hiked by 30% and the ongoing vandalisation of our rivers and lakes. No new reservoirs built in 30 years, and 3bn litres of water lost daily to crumbling pipes. 'Never in the field of essential public services has so much been earned by so few for doing so little.' Pay for chief financial officers pay fell 3% to £7.6m for the 12 water companies who disclosed it, although that decline was driven by a steep drop from £1.3m to £636,000 for the since-departed Alastair Cochran at Thames Water as the company neared collapse. Aside from Thames, CFO pay rose by 7% on average during the year. The highest-paid water boss was Liv Garfield, of Severn Trent, a FTSE 100 company that supplies 4.6m households across the Midlands and north Wales. She was granted £3.3m during the financial year. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion The lowest-paid water chief executive was David Hinton, of South East Water, who received £456,000 – still well above the £270,000 salary for the head of the NHS. Luke Hildyard, the executive director of the High Pay Centre, which campaigns against 'excessive' pay, called for water company salaries to be limited to 10 times the lowest earners. 'Many people have found it hard to reconcile the litany of financial, environmental and customer service disasters variously afflicting these companies with top pay awards that have frequently exceeded £1m,' he said. 'Is a clean, reliable water supply really so contingent on these seven-figure pay awards?' A government spokesperson said: 'Undeserved bonuses for water company bosses have now been banned as part of the government's plan to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas for good. We also have ringfenced customers' bills to ensure investment must be spent on new sewage pipes and treatment works, not bonuses. 'Any instances of companies trying to circumvent the new rules are completely unacceptable. The government will leave no stone unturned against any bosses being made these payments.' A spokesperson for Water UK, a lobby group, said: 'Executive pay in the water industry is independently determined by remuneration committees, which abide by the laws and regulations set by government. 'Water companies are focused on investing a record £104bn over the next five years to secure our water supplies, end sewage entering our rivers and seas and support economic growth.'
BBC News
17-07-2025
- Climate
- BBC News
A413 Buckinghamshire could be closed for a week after burst pipes
Part of an A-road could be closed for 10 days after multiple water pipes burst outside a pumping station, a council Council's highways team said the A413 between Aylesbury and Amersham was badly flooded and had been closed by Affinity Water on to the "extent of damage" between Chiltern Hospital and Deep Mill Diner, the closure could last until 26 July."Please adjust your routes accordingly unless you're commuting in a kayak," Thames Valley Police said in a social media post. "The road will need to remain closed to enable Affinity Water to fix their pipes and then repair the road structure and surface," said Buckinghamshire Highways. Affinity Water said it was carrying out repairs and urged customers to avoid using appliances such as washing machines and advised people with a functioning water supply to put some in a kettle or the fridge for drinking in case it had to be cut of the same road had to be closed earlier this month after a void appeared beneath its authority said it had found what it believed to be an old defunct drainage channel under the carriageway. Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
16-07-2025
- Climate
- BBC News
A413 Buckinghamshire could be closed for a week after burst pipe
Part of an A-road could be closed for seven days because of a burst water main, police Thames Valley force posted pictures on social media of a badly flooded A413 between Aylesbury and Amersham. Buckinghamshire Highways said the road was closed between Chiltern Hospital and Deep Mill Diner between Great Missenden and Little Missenden. "Please adjust your routes accordingly unless you're commuting in a kayak," police added. Affinity Water said it was carrying out repairs and urged customers to avoid using appliances such as washing machines and advised people with a functioning water supply to put some in a kettle or the fridge for drinking in case it had to be cut of the same road had to be closed earlier this month after a void appeared beneath its authority said it had found what it believed to be an old defunct drainage channel under the carriageway. Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
The Guardian
14-07-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
English water firm doubles CEO's pay despite ‘elevated concern' over finances
A water company serving 3.9 million customers in London and south-east England has doubled the pay of its chief executive, despite the regulator saying it had 'elevated concern' over its financial situation. Affinity Water said its chief executive, Keith Haslett, received £1.6m for the 2024-25 financial year, up from £709,000 the year before. Bosses' pay at privately owned water companies has been under intense scrutiny in recent years as the public and politicians expressed increasing anger over leaking infrastructure and sewage spills into rivers. Campaigners have criticised high pay for executives for a service which is essential for life, and over which they hold monopolies in each area. It also emerged this week that Severn Trent, which supplies an area covering Bristol to the Humber, and mid-Wales to the East Midlands, awarded its chief executive, Liv Garfield, £3.3m for the 2025 financial year. Affinity Water provides water services only to customers mainly to the north and west of London, including parts of Hertfordshire and Surrey, as well as parts of Essex and Kent. Affinity is owned by the German insurer Allianz, the FTSE 250-listed infrastructure fund HICL, and DIF, part of the US private equity fund CVC. In November Ofwat, the water regulator for England and Wales, said it had 'elevated concern' over its finances because of debt levels equivalent to 75% of the value of its assets – above the 60% Ofwat targets – and the failure of its owners to invest in line with a previous business plan. However, the shareholders in February agreed to invest £150m, easing the financial pressures. The pay increase for Haslett, which emerged in its annual report published last week, was mainly due to a new 'retention payment' of £503,000. He was also awarded an extra £251,000 under a new long-term incentive plan, while his annual bonus increased 29% to £350,000. That was on top of a base salary and other benefits worth £449,000. The company's remuneration committee noted the 'unprecedented level of adverse public and political sentiment' around high pay for executives. The bosses of six water companies – Thames Water, Anglian Water, Southern Water, United Utilities, Wessex Water and Yorkshire Water – were banned from receiving bonuses last month because of sewage spills. However, Affinity does not provide sewage services, meaning it is less likely to be caught by the ban. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion The report also showed that the chief financial officer, Adam Stephens, received £298,000 for three months' work, having joined the business in January. A Severn Trent spokesperson told the Telegraph, which first reported on Garfield's pay: 'We're the only company to receive the highest four-star status for environmental performance for the fifth consecutive year, and our £15bn business plan to invest was rated outstanding by the regulator. 'Executive pay is based on performance and Severn Trent are consistently recognised as leaders.' Affinity Water was approached for comment.
The Guardian
23-06-2025
- Climate
- The Guardian
The UK is getting drier. Could reusing greywater help?
Water shortages are no longer a distant threat. By 2055, in England alone, the public will face a shortfall of 5bn litres a day – a shortfall of such immensity it will require societal and cultural change, which experts argue needs to start today. Scientists have long predicted that the UK would not be immune to climate change-induced extreme weather. The evidence is all too clear now that our traditionally grey, mild and wet European island – which this weekend experienced a heatwave made 100 times more likely by the climate crisis – is already in the midst of a water crisis that will only worsen in years to come. The Environment Agency has said it expects water companies to save 60% percent of the 5bn litres a day shortfall by managing customer demand and reducing the 3bn litres a day they leak from their pipework. The remaining 40% would come from boosting supply, including through the construction of new reservoirs and water transfer schemes. David Black, chief executive of Ofwat, has recently urged people to cut water use by shortening shower times, collecting rainwater and turning off taps when brushing teeth. And last week, Affinity Water advised customers to cut water use with the same tips. While these are sensible ways to reduce individual household consumption, with public trust in the water industry at an all-time low as a result of Britain's rivers being flooded with sewage, it might be a hard message to land. What is so far missing is a strategic response from the government, the regulators and water companies to change behaviours and facilitate the reuse of rainwater as well as the greywater in our homes – the runoff from baths, showers, and washing machines – to properly tackle high water consumption. The average person in the UK uses 142 litres of water a day, compared with 78 litres a day in Slovakia – the lowest in Europe – and 300 litres per day in Switzerland (Europe's highest). While the government has a target under the Environment Act 2021 for individuals to cut their water use to 122 litres per person per day by 2037-38 – considered far too unambitious by many – the existence of the target is a mystery to most people because there has been no public information campaign, no social media outreach and no widespread household leafleting to explain the problem and encourage changes to our lifestyles to reduce consumption. Ofwat has been talking about a public information campaign for several years, and the Guardian understands that after many delays, a £100m campaign will be launched later this autumn. For their part, water companies are focusing bill payers' money on mega engineering projects to boost supplies, such as desalination plants, water transfers and new reservoirs, rather than investing significant energy into a strategic approach to make reuse a feasible option in our homes. Mark Lloyd, chief executive of the Rivers Trust, said rather than being seen as waste, water must be treated as a precious resource, managed as close as possible to where it falls as rain and appreciated for the critical role it plays in our economy, ecosystems and in keeping us alive. 'We cannot simply build and bulldoze our way to water resilience,' he said. Smart metres are considered the best way to cut household consumption because they provide real-time usage data, identify leaks and encourage behavioural change. Yet only an estimated 12% of households in England have smart meters fitted. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion In countries more used to drought conditions, holding on to water and reusing it is an established system. Rainwater collection and reuse, capture and reuse of greywater, are all tried and tested methods to reduce water consumption in countries such as Australia, Cyprus, the US and Japan. In Cyprus, one of the most water stressed countries in Europe, the reuse of greywater which comes from washing machines, basins and baths is reducing consumption in households by 50%. In Japan, the most common greywater reuse system in a home is a toilet with a hand basin set into the top of the cistern, which allows water from handwashing to form part of the refill volume of the toilet. Residential reuse projects for non-potable water – that is not suitable for drinking – can be found in every state of Australia. Alastair Chisholm, chief executive of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management, said harvesting rainwater or greywater and reusing it to flush toilets could cut an individual's water use to 80 litres per person per day. He wants the government to set up a national rainwater management strategy and make it mandatory that new-build properties limit consumption to 80 litres per person per day via new pipes and fittings to enable rainwater or greywater reuse. Building regulations also need to change to mandate water efficiency to 80 litres per person per day in new homes, he said. 'We need to treat rainwater as a resource and asset to be valued and we need regulatory and policy change to do this,' said Chisholm.
