UK water regulator stops companies from making customers pay for exec bonuses
Water regulator Ofwat blocks nine companies from using customer funds to pay £6.8m in executive bonuses. Three major suppliers face direct restrictions while six others chose to use shareholder money instead
In a ground-breaking move‚ nine UK water suppliers cant use customer-paid money for top-level bonuses anymore (which makes up about three-quarters of all planned exec rewards in the industry)
The water watchdog Ofwat took action against three big-name suppliers: Thames Water‚ Yorkshire Water‚ and Dwr Cymru Welsh Water – blocking them from using £1.5m of customer cash for exec pay-outs. Thames Water (which has over £16bn in debt) wanted to give its bosses Chris Weston and Alastair Cochran around £770k from bill-payers money
Six other water companies made a smart-move and decided not to push their £5.2m bonus costs onto customers; choosing to let share-holders foot the bill instead. The regulator says it wouldʼve stopped these pay-outs too if the companies hadnt changed their minds
In stopping customers from paying for undeserved bonuses that do not properly reflect performance‚ we are looking to sharpen executive mindsets
Steve Reed‚ the Environment Secretary says its time for change: the government is making new laws to stop unfair bonuses going to water company bosses. Theyʼre also doing the biggest check-up of water companies since they became private businesses
These new bonus-control rules (which started last year) are starting to show real effects; Ofwat will adjust company costs so they cant get this money back from customers pockets
