No customer cash for water bosses' bonuses, says Ofwat

Nine water companies, including stricken Thames Water, have been stopped from using customer money to fund “undeserved” bonuses for top bosses worth £6.8m.

- HOLLY WILLIAMS, HOWARD MUSTOE

Ofwat said it had stepped in to halt water companies that cannot show that bonuses are sufficiently linked to performance from using customer money to fund the payouts. The bosses will still get their money, but from shareholders instead. Thames boss Chris Weston, who only joined the firm in January, was given a bonus worth £195,000.

Debt-laden Thames Water is among three firms – also including Yorkshire Water, and Dwr Cymru Welsh Water – which were directly blocked from allowing customers to pay £1.55m worth of bonuses after initially wanting to use bill payers’ funds. The remaining six said that shareholders would pay voluntarily.

Ofwat said a further six companies had voluntarily decided not to push the cost of executive bonuses worth a combined £5.2m onto customers, with shareholders instead paying. It added it would otherwise have moved to block the payouts.