Water bosses in England and Wales were paid bonuses for their environmental performance in pay packets of more than £14m last year, despite discharging sewage into rivers and seas more than 300,000 times.
The total pay for chief executives at the 10 English and Welsh combined sewage and water businesses was £14.5m in the 2021-22 financial year.
Of that, more than £10m took the form of bonuses, long-term incentives, benefits and pension contributions.
Campaigners said the figures showed an “obscene bonus culture” at the heart of the water industry, coming at the cost of customers and the environment.
Last week, Ofwat, the financial regulator of water companies, and the Government pledged that bonuses would be tightly linked to performance and would be “recovered” where measures such as environmental targets are not met.
Water company accounts analysed by i reveal bosses are currently being paid thousands in bonuses specifically for environmental performance, despite regularly releasing sewage into rivers and seas.
Wessex Water gave its chief executive, Colin Skellett, £61,548 for the company’s environmental performance, out of a total benefits package of £189,500. In 2022, the company oversaw almost 29,000 sewage spills and in 2021 it dropped from a four-star Environment Agency (EA) rating to just two stars.
Severn Trent linked 12 per cent of its chief executive’s bonus to environmental performance and is set to link a further 8 per cent in 2022-23. Its CEO, Liv Garfield, is the best paid executive in the industry at £3.9m, including bonuses. She received 81 per cent of her total possible bonus in 2021-22.
While the company has a maximum four-star rating from the EA, it still discharged sewage nearly 45,000 times in 2022.
Other companies said environmental performance was already included in the Ofwat performance indicators they used to judge remuneration. United Utilities takes this approach. Its chief executive, Steve Mogford, received a £727,000 bonus as part of a £3.2m pay packet.
The company also has a four-star EA rating, but is the worst performer for sewage discharges with 69,245 in 2022. The company argues that it serves a larger and significantly rainier area than other water companies.
Water companies have more than 30 targets set for them by regulators, which also include reducing leaks and improving customer service. Water quality is only one factor in them.
In all of 2022, English and Welsh companies released sewage into rivers and seas 301,091 times, according to official figures. That was a 19 per cent fall from 2021, although the EA said that the decline was mostly due to last year’s extremely dry weather.
The discharges are, on the whole, entirely legal and prevent the sewage system from backing up into homes and businesses when it is overwhelmed.
Ashley Smith, founder of the Windrush Against Sewage Pollution campaign group, told i there was an “obscene bonus culture” within the water industry and that the Government needed to focus on going after water company bosses and not just fines for the companies.
He said: “Dividends for nothing go hand in hand with delivering bill payers’ money to shareholders at the expense of the service and the environment. We have heard the huffing and puffing of Government ministers, let’s see some action to not only end the rip-off but get misappropriated money back.”
Water UK, which represents the industry, said via a spokesperson: “Every water company is firmly of the view that urgent action is needed to tackle the harm caused by storm overflows and are committed to delivering ambitious plans that will see them transformed.
“Water companies agree with the urgent need for action and are bringing forward £56bn to replumb England in one of the largest infrastructure programmes ever. This includes removing every high-spilling overflow in England, and protecting areas used for bathing.”
A Wessex Water spokesperson said: “Targets for environmental improvements are set by our regulators and Wessex Water performed well against them.
“In particular, we had the fewest number of pollution incidents for ten years and achieved 100 per cent wastewater treatment compliance for discharges to the environment from our water recycling centres – the only company to achieve this.
“Executive bonuses are set by an independent remuneration committee and assessed against a range of metrics.
“As for discharges from storm overflows, these are permitted by the Environment Agency and operate automatically, releasing mostly stormwater during or after intense rainfall to prevent sewage flooding in people’s homes.
“We agree that storm overflows aren’t fit for the 21st century, so we’re spending £3m per month on improving them and reducing how often they operate.”
Of course they do greedy greedy people who shouldn’t be in charge of a bucket of water let alone a water company every thing is greed ! How much money do these people need !
Foreign investment firms, private equity, pension funds and businesses lodged in tax havens own more than 70% of the water industry in England, according to research by the Guardian.30 Nov 2022
Literally cannot get the specialised HGV drivers to deliver the chemicals because of Brexit so the UK government made dumping raw sewage into rivers legal. If you voted for Brexit and/or Conservative this is because of you.
Now water companies simply save money and increase profits by dumping raw sewage instead of paying for chemicals – ferric sulphate – capitalism at its finest, welcome to the Brexit Britain endless rivers of shit.
Privatise profits, socialise losses.
>Labour retreats from pledge to nationalise energy, water and mail if it wins next general election
So nothing is going to change.
Ah, the efficiency of the wonderful private sector the right keeps banging on about in action!
A major issue is all the stormwater that goes into sewerage drains because of decades of bad design that’s never realistically going to be fixed.
I would too if I was them. What’s anyone going to do about it?
Welcome to the UK, where we reward failure and blame the peasents for it. We have shitty rivers and get fucked over by the energy companies. YAAAAY!
They probably get the bonuses because they weren’t fined for spilling sewage, because the Tories don’t give a shit any more.
I sure hope the fire, wind and air bosses are receiving similar bounties.
They announced that water companies may face unlimited fines for dumping waste instead of it being capped at 250k.
I foresee that my water bill is going to go up to cover this “expense” so that the bosses don’t feel it in their bonus
I’ve gone past caring. Honestly they truly deserve those bonuses because the public are utter morons for voting to get us to this state.
Tories created this problem now its an excuse to overcharge us, they couldn’t use Russia before
Environmental bonuses? You can’t make that up but seems they did.
“Over 70 per cent water industry in England is owned by foreign investment firms and businesses lodged in tax havens, a report said on Thursday. A report revealed at least 72 per cent of the industry is controlled by firms in 17 countries, while UK firms own 10 per cent.”
It’s seems a theme of privatisation is that you pay more, to help the rich get richer.
Nationalise now.
Southern Water, who in 2022 were responsible for 16,688 monitored spills, have posted signs on the beach near me in Selsey telling people not to feed the gulls, because they may “pollute the bathing water”.
If your best defence is to try and scapegoat birds in their natural environment, just don’t bother, just say “yeah, we’re terrible, you got us”.
In the news its been eggs bacon and milk are bad for you,but none of seem to think going to the beach and rolling around and swimming other people’s bowel movements is a health hazard,
Can we haul these bosses onto a live interview stage to justify these bonuses? Not for any real reason other than to try and watch them explain how they think it is justified when they have polluted our waterways and beaches beyond belief. I do not expect a good answer or any sign of remorse, I just think it will be a car crash only beaten by Prince Andrew.
Privatisation of water has only siphoned public funds to investor pockets. The companies did nothing to improve the service or infrastructure and are now breaking the law because their infrastructure has been neglected and unfit for purpose.
This is evidence that privatisation where a company is conferred a monopoly doesn’t generally work in the public interest. Each water company has a monopoly in their designated areas. There is nothing to keep them competitive for customers. Heavy regulation is needed in such situations which the Conservative government won’t do unless there is a scandal which affects their chances of re-election.
Maybe all this is by design, the Conservatives want investors to siphon taxpayers money in this way. In return, the get appointed a position at a company being paid a lot of money for essentially no work, or receive money from giving a speech. Corruption.
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Article contents:
Water bosses in England and Wales were paid bonuses for their environmental performance in pay packets of more than £14m last year, despite discharging sewage into rivers and seas more than 300,000 times.
The total pay for chief executives at the 10 English and Welsh combined sewage and water businesses was £14.5m in the 2021-22 financial year.
Of that, more than £10m took the form of bonuses, long-term incentives, benefits and pension contributions.
Campaigners said the figures showed an “obscene bonus culture” at the heart of the water industry, coming at the cost of customers and the environment.
Last week, Ofwat, the financial regulator of water companies, and the Government pledged that bonuses would be tightly linked to performance and would be “recovered” where measures such as environmental targets are not met.
Water company accounts analysed by i reveal bosses are currently being paid thousands in bonuses specifically for environmental performance, despite regularly releasing sewage into rivers and seas.
Wessex Water gave its chief executive, Colin Skellett, £61,548 for the company’s environmental performance, out of a total benefits package of £189,500. In 2022, the company oversaw almost 29,000 sewage spills and in 2021 it dropped from a four-star Environment Agency (EA) rating to just two stars.
Severn Trent linked 12 per cent of its chief executive’s bonus to environmental performance and is set to link a further 8 per cent in 2022-23. Its CEO, Liv Garfield, is the best paid executive in the industry at £3.9m, including bonuses. She received 81 per cent of her total possible bonus in 2021-22.
While the company has a maximum four-star rating from the EA, it still discharged sewage nearly 45,000 times in 2022.
Other companies said environmental performance was already included in the Ofwat performance indicators they used to judge remuneration. United Utilities takes this approach. Its chief executive, Steve Mogford, received a £727,000 bonus as part of a £3.2m pay packet.
The company also has a four-star EA rating, but is the worst performer for sewage discharges with 69,245 in 2022. The company argues that it serves a larger and significantly rainier area than other water companies.
Water companies have more than 30 targets set for them by regulators, which also include reducing leaks and improving customer service. Water quality is only one factor in them.
In all of 2022, English and Welsh companies released sewage into rivers and seas 301,091 times, according to official figures. That was a 19 per cent fall from 2021, although the EA said that the decline was mostly due to last year’s extremely dry weather.
The discharges are, on the whole, entirely legal and prevent the sewage system from backing up into homes and businesses when it is overwhelmed.
Ashley Smith, founder of the Windrush Against Sewage Pollution campaign group, told i there was an “obscene bonus culture” within the water industry and that the Government needed to focus on going after water company bosses and not just fines for the companies.
He said: “Dividends for nothing go hand in hand with delivering bill payers’ money to shareholders at the expense of the service and the environment. We have heard the huffing and puffing of Government ministers, let’s see some action to not only end the rip-off but get misappropriated money back.”
Water UK, which represents the industry, said via a spokesperson: “Every water company is firmly of the view that urgent action is needed to tackle the harm caused by storm overflows and are committed to delivering ambitious plans that will see them transformed.
“Water companies agree with the urgent need for action and are bringing forward £56bn to replumb England in one of the largest infrastructure programmes ever. This includes removing every high-spilling overflow in England, and protecting areas used for bathing.”
A Wessex Water spokesperson said: “Targets for environmental improvements are set by our regulators and Wessex Water performed well against them.
“In particular, we had the fewest number of pollution incidents for ten years and achieved 100 per cent wastewater treatment compliance for discharges to the environment from our water recycling centres – the only company to achieve this.
“Executive bonuses are set by an independent remuneration committee and assessed against a range of metrics.
“As for discharges from storm overflows, these are permitted by the Environment Agency and operate automatically, releasing mostly stormwater during or after intense rainfall to prevent sewage flooding in people’s homes.
“We agree that storm overflows aren’t fit for the 21st century, so we’re spending £3m per month on improving them and reducing how often they operate.”
Of course they do greedy greedy people who shouldn’t be in charge of a bucket of water let alone a water company every thing is greed ! How much money do these people need !
Foreign investment firms, private equity, pension funds and businesses lodged in tax havens own more than 70% of the water industry in England, according to research by the Guardian.30 Nov 2022
Literally cannot get the specialised HGV drivers to deliver the chemicals because of Brexit so the UK government made dumping raw sewage into rivers legal. If you voted for Brexit and/or Conservative this is because of you.
https://www.water.org.uk/news-item/driver-shortage-statement/
Now water companies simply save money and increase profits by dumping raw sewage instead of paying for chemicals – ferric sulphate – capitalism at its finest, welcome to the Brexit Britain endless rivers of shit.
Privatise profits, socialise losses.
>Labour retreats from pledge to nationalise energy, water and mail if it wins next general election
So nothing is going to change.
Ah, the efficiency of the wonderful private sector the right keeps banging on about in action!
A major issue is all the stormwater that goes into sewerage drains because of decades of bad design that’s never realistically going to be fixed.
I would too if I was them. What’s anyone going to do about it?
Welcome to the UK, where we reward failure and blame the peasents for it. We have shitty rivers and get fucked over by the energy companies. YAAAAY!
They probably get the bonuses because they weren’t fined for spilling sewage, because the Tories don’t give a shit any more.
I sure hope the fire, wind and air bosses are receiving similar bounties.
They announced that water companies may face unlimited fines for dumping waste instead of it being capped at 250k.
I foresee that my water bill is going to go up to cover this “expense” so that the bosses don’t feel it in their bonus
I’ve gone past caring. Honestly they truly deserve those bonuses because the public are utter morons for voting to get us to this state.
Tories created this problem now its an excuse to overcharge us, they couldn’t use Russia before
Environmental bonuses? You can’t make that up but seems they did.
“Over 70 per cent water industry in England is owned by foreign investment firms and businesses lodged in tax havens, a report said on Thursday. A report revealed at least 72 per cent of the industry is controlled by firms in 17 countries, while UK firms own 10 per cent.”
It’s seems a theme of privatisation is that you pay more, to help the rich get richer.
Nationalise now.
Southern Water, who in 2022 were responsible for 16,688 monitored spills, have posted signs on the beach near me in Selsey telling people not to feed the gulls, because they may “pollute the bathing water”.
If your best defence is to try and scapegoat birds in their natural environment, just don’t bother, just say “yeah, we’re terrible, you got us”.
In the news its been eggs bacon and milk are bad for you,but none of seem to think going to the beach and rolling around and swimming other people’s bowel movements is a health hazard,
Can we haul these bosses onto a live interview stage to justify these bonuses? Not for any real reason other than to try and watch them explain how they think it is justified when they have polluted our waterways and beaches beyond belief. I do not expect a good answer or any sign of remorse, I just think it will be a car crash only beaten by Prince Andrew.
Privatisation of water has only siphoned public funds to investor pockets. The companies did nothing to improve the service or infrastructure and are now breaking the law because their infrastructure has been neglected and unfit for purpose.
This is evidence that privatisation where a company is conferred a monopoly doesn’t generally work in the public interest. Each water company has a monopoly in their designated areas. There is nothing to keep them competitive for customers. Heavy regulation is needed in such situations which the Conservative government won’t do unless there is a scandal which affects their chances of re-election.
Maybe all this is by design, the Conservatives want investors to siphon taxpayers money in this way. In return, the get appointed a position at a company being paid a lot of money for essentially no work, or receive money from giving a speech. Corruption.