Troubled Thames Water risked a new public backlash today when it emerged that its boss received a package worth more than £1 million last year despite a huge loss and a surge in pollution incidents.
Latest accounts from Britain’s biggest water supplier show the CEO Chris Weston was paid a base salary of £850,000, which with other benefits pushed his overall remuneration to £1.035 million. He did not receive a bonus.
However, critics of the company, which is struggling to avoid being overwhelmed by its near £17 billion of debts, will point to a “disappointing” 34% rise in the number of times in the year it was responsible for polluting rivers and other water courses from 350 to 470.
The most serious category of pollution incidents more than doubled from 14 to 34 while the number of storm discharges increased from 16,990 to 23,061.
In March a group of campaigners attempted a citizen’s arrest on Mr Weston over pollution in its area, which covers London and the Thames Valley.
Thames Water blamed “significant rainfall and high groundwater levels” for the deteriorating performance but insisted it had made “progress on addressing underlying causes”.
The company, which yesterday announced hosepipes bans for large swathes of southern England, said reducing the level of pollutions, “continues to be a significant challenge for us”.
It said: “Prolonged wet weather meant further rain had nowhere to go other than to inundate our ageing and fragile sewer network.
“Reducing pollutions and discharges is something we’re really focused on, and we plan to invest record amounts in our waste network during the next five years.”
The annual accounts for the year to end March, arguably the toughest in Thames’s history as a privatised utility, show that Thames Water has slumped to a £1.65 billion annual loss and saw its debt mountain balloon to £16.79 billion.
The struggling utility tumbled to the pre-tax loss from profits of £157 million the previous year after it booked a £1.27 billion bad debt provision on intercompany loans and set aside £122 million for fines from Ofwat, among other costs.
Accounts also reveal that Mr Weston was paid an extra £65,000 in lieu of holiday time he was unable to take “in order to lead the company effectively through a very challenging financial year”.
Mr Weston also received a pension contribution of £102,000 and other taxable benefits totalling £18,000.
However, his total package was down from the £1.71 million paid to the holders of the CEO post in the previous year.
Chief financial officer Alastair Cochran, who quit at the end of the year, received a package worth £636,000.
The figures annual come as the water firm remains in talks over a rescue funding deal with senior creditors after private equity firm KKR last month pulled out of plans to inject much-needed cash.
Mr Weston said: “Thames Water has made good progress in operational performance, despite the ongoing challenging financial situation.
“The new organisation structure, focused on our infrastructure, brings clearer accountability and has helped our transformation continue to gain momentum.
“As a result, we have made sustained progress overall against our six critical operational priorities in 2024/25. However, that progress is not demonstrated in our disappointing pollutions outturn.”
