Bosses' bonuses banned at six water companies

A fig of h2o companies person been banned from paying "unfair" bonuses to immoderate of their elder executives nether caller rules, the authorities has announced.

The measures use to h2o companies that bash not conscionable biology and user standards, are not financially resilient oregon person been convicted of a transgression offence.

There has been increasing nationalist interest astir sewage spills and rising bills for years portion h2o companies person paid retired £112m successful rewards to executives implicit the past decade.

Under the caller Water Act, six firms are banned from paying immoderate bonuses this twelvemonth including Anglian Water, Southern Water, Thames Water, United Utilities, Wessex Water and Yorkshire Water.

The ban, which is backdated to April 2024, means regulator Ofwat tin unit firms to claw backmost bonuses that person been paid oregon look enforcement action. It applies to stock awards arsenic good arsenic cash.

It is portion of caller measures successful the Water Act which came into unit connected Friday.

Environment Secretary Steve Reed said the nationalist had been "furious" implicit bonuses for h2o steadfast bosses "despite overseeing grounds levels of sewage pouring into our rivers, lakes and seas".

"With this government, the epoch of profiting from contamination is over," helium told the BBC's Today programme.

When challenged connected the question of whether companies would effort to get astir the prohibition by raising executives' basal salaries, arsenic happened with banking bonuses, helium said h2o firms "would beryllium foolish if they didn't realise they request to rebuild spot with their ain customers".

"They request to rebuild that breached relationship," helium said. "I don't deliberation they volition bash that, but we're keeping a watching eye, and determination are opportunities to intervene if we needed to."

But Liberal Democrat Environment spokesperson Tim Farron called the government's announcement "half-baked".

He added that it "doesn't interaction the sides successful enacting cardinal betterment - particularly if h2o companies tin inactive workaround bonuses and wriggle disconnected the hook".

In the past twelvemonth alone, £7.6m successful bonuses were paid to h2o bosses successful England, the authorities said.

Water UK, which represents companies successful the industry, said that firms' autarkic committees, which determine connected performance-related pay, volition abide by the laws acceptable by government.

It added: "Water companies are focused connected investing a grounds £104bn implicit the adjacent 5 years to unafraid our h2o supplies, extremity sewage entering our rivers and seas and enactment economical growth."

This week, a reappraisal recovered that the h2o manufacture successful England and Wales is failing.

The autarkic Water Commission, led by erstwhile Bank of England lawman politician Sir Jon Cunliffe, said successful its interim findings that nationalist spot had been shaken by "pollution, fiscal difficulties, mismanagement [and] infrastructure failures".

Customers person seen bills rocket arsenic h2o firms effort to rise funds to put successful crumbling infrastructure.

The committee said that the UK's h2o strategy has suffered "deep-rooted, systemic and interlocking failures implicit the years".

This included a "failure successful government's strategy and readying for the future".

Last month, Thames Water was fined £122.7m for breaching rules implicit sewage spills and shareholder payouts, the largest ever good issued by Ofwat.

The highly-indebted institution serves astir a 4th of the UK's population, mostly crossed London and parts of confederate England, and employs 8,000 people.

Earlier this week, Thames suffered a large stroke successful an effort to unafraid its aboriginal aft US backstage equity elephantine KKR pulled retired of a £4bn rescue deal for the company.

In April, campaigners recovered that the number contamination incidents successful England was astatine a 10-year high.