Calls to cut bonuses for UK water bosses until reservoirs built and leaks fixed

[dutchman]

Investment is needed to help country recover from drought, say politicians and campaigners



Water company bosses should be stripped of their multimillion-pound bonuses until they fix leaks and build reservoirs, politicians and campaigners have said as the country is gripped by drought.

With parts of England the driest they have been since records began – after five months of below-average rainfall – some homes have run out of water, rivers have turned dry and farmers are facing crop failures. Many are outraged at the companies for failing to invest in reservoirs, fix leaks and stop sewage pollution from their pipes.

The bosses of England’s water companies have been criticised for banking £58m in pay and benefits over the last five years. Since privatisation, shareholders have been paid £72bn in dividends. The cash came from big debts, with companies borrowing £56bn, and big bills, with prices rising 40%.

Stuart Singleton-White, head of campaigns at the Angling Trust, said: “The profits being made by water companies, who are in effect private monopolies, the dividend payments to shareholders, the inflated salaries and bonuses to the CEOs, and the debts that have been run up by these companies, mostly to support dividends and inflated salaries, rather than finance investment, is a clear sign this is a broken market.”

He pointed out that no new reservoirs have been built in England since water companies were privatised, and that years of underinvestment had led to “unacceptable levels of leaks”. Water companies currently leak around a quarter of their supply through old pipes, with 2,954m litres a day seeping away last year.

“When the crisis hit, our water system was not ready”, Singleton-White said, blaming “the greed of the water companies, the weakness of the regulators and the complacency of the government”.

Even some Conservative MPs are saying that the money water company bosses make is “unacceptable”. Former environment minister Rebecca Pow, who had water in her remit, said that the regulator should be taking stricter action and giving companies hefty fines.

She told the Guardian: “These salaries are unacceptable if they can’t with a clear conscience provide clean, plentiful and sustainable water.

“But this is also up to the regulator.”

She added: “We also have the opportunity to charge the water companies 10% of their turnover in fines, so we should look into that.”

The Liberal Democrats first called for the ban on water company bonuses last week, and on Monday the party’s environment spokesperson, Tim Farron, told the Guardian: “Wealthy water company execs are profiteering off Britain’s rusting water infrastructure. They are handing themselves multimillion-pound bonuses whilst people this week had to queue up for bottled water in unbearable heat all because of a refusal to fix leaks. These are the very same execs who paid themselves massive salaries despite pumping poisonous sewage into our rivers.

“Ministers are just looking the other way whilst this scandal happens. You can’t trust this Conservative government to stand up for people and the environment. Instead, all they care about is keeping water company CEOs rich.”

[rebbonk]

I can't see it happening. The problem is that these are private companies, run by shareholders. If the government wants to start making stipulations, then they need to have majority control. Utility companies ought never have been privatised.