Water bosses’ pay rises despite bonus ban and public fury over bills and pollution

South West Water’s Countess Wear sewage treatment works in Devon. Its sewer storm overflow has spilled in the past. Photograph: Graham Hunt/Alamy View image in fullscreen South West Water’s Countess Wear sewage treatment works in Devon. Its sewer storm overflow has spilled in the past. Photograph: Graham Hunt/Alamy Water bosses’ pay rises despite bonus ban and public fury over bills and pollution Exclusive: Eight companies expect to be covered by the ban for 2025-26, the Guardian can reveal Water company bosses’ total pay rose over the past year despite a government bonus ban and public outrage over pollution and bills, the Guardian can reveal. One chief executive, Mark Thurston of Anglian Water, received £1.9m – including a £500,000 “retention payment”, despite the bonus ban. The biggest package went to Louise Beardmore, chief executive of United Utilities, who received £2.5m – £1.1m more than the previous year. Overall reported pay packets rose by 1.5% to £25.3m for chief executives and chief financial officers in the year, thanks to salary rises and the use of pay loopholes, according to analysis of the 14 companies that serve most of England and Wales. With water bills soaring and with Britain’s biggest water company, Thames, on the brink of insolvency and about 23 million people covered by hosepipe bans as drought status looms, the revelation sparked criticism of companies for allegedly finding ways to pay their bosses more, despite the bonus ban being introduced in 2025. The news will add to pressure on Andy Burnham to clamp down on the industry. Burnham has said he wants to exert “more public control” over the water industry , and has suggested he could move Thames into temporary government ownership after years of financial struggles and mismanagement. View image in fullscreen Mark Thurston, chief executive of Anglian Water, received £1.9m, including a £500,000 ‘retention payment’. Photograph: Geoff Moore/Rex/Shutterstock Adrian Ramsay, a Green party MP, said: “The astronomical sums paid to water company executives are a perfect illustration of everything that is wrong with treating this essential public resource as a private commodity. “Andy Burnham must surely now reach the obvious conclusion that water should be brought back into public ownership, as the Green party would do, so that any money raised goes back into the system, not into shareholders’ pockets and excessive executive pay.” Water company pay has come under intense scrutiny in recent years because of persistent dumping of sewage into Britain’s rivers and seas. The utilities have been allowed to raise bills sharply to make belated investments in their leaking pipes, ageing treatment works and new reservoirs. Recent hot weather has added to the frustrations of customers. Eight companies said they expect to be covered by the bonus ban for 2025-26, with bans applied retrospectively to companies responsible for the most serious pollution incidents or financial failings. Yet desp