Latest news with #LouiseBeardmore
Daily Mail
12-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Water bosses warned: DON'T defy bonus ban
The water industry watchdog has warned United Utilities and other suppliers not to raise directors' salaries to swerve a sweeping bonus ban. Ofwat said it would be 'watching closely' after barring United and five other firms – Thames Water, Wessex Water, Anglian Water, Southern Water and Yorkshire Water – from making performance-related payouts this year because of their poor pollution records and other failings. The ban, announced last month, follows public outrage over the huge volumes of raw sewage being dumped into rivers, lakes and seas as a result of years of chronic underinvestment in pipes, sewers and reservoirs. Since they were privatised debt-free in 1989, the utilities, which are monopolies with no competition, have paid out £85 billion in dividends and are now drowning in £60 billion of debt, while household bills have almost doubled in real terms. Customers face hikes of up to 53 per cent before inflation over the next five years to pay for infrastructure repairs. Meanwhile, water bosses awarded themselves more than £112 million in bonuses and incentive payments in the past decade. United was surprised by Ofwat's bonus ban – which is backdated to April 2024 – even though it was responsible for more sewage spills last year than any other water firm. It had already awarded chief executive Louise Beardmore and finance boss Phil Aspin annual bonuses of £417,000 and £269,000 respectively before the regulator's bombshell last month. The company, which has 7 million customers in north-west England, has confirmed it will abide by Ofwat's ruling. But it has refused to rule out raising directors' base salaries this year to compensate them, saying no decision had been made, despite the company being almost four months into its financial year. Beardmore's most recent salary was £716,000 while Aspin's was £462,000. United, which on Friday holds its annual meeting, where it is proposing only minor changes to its pay policy, is the only public company under the bonus ban and so faces stricter rules around its disclosure of executive pay. Another, Thames Water, faces a dressing down from MPs on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs committee this week after revealing that 21 managers are in line for bonuses of up to £17.5 million from an emergency loan. A £3 billion cash injection was meant to keep the debt-laden water supplier to London and the Thames Valley afloat or face being renationalised.E Ofwat was not made aware of the bonuses until after the first tranche of £2.5 million had been paid, but it is powerless to claw them back because they do not apply to board-level directors. Ofwat's chief executive, David Black, said he was 'disappointed at the lack of transparency' shown by Thames Water, adding: 'At a time when remuneration in the water sector is under significant public scrutiny, we expect water companies to be proactive and transparent.' Ofwat is also unable to stop forgone bonuses being replaced by increased salaries, as was routine in the banking sector when bonus pots were capped after the financial crisis. Ofwat has been criticised for not clamping down on boardroom excess while water firms ran up debts and showered investors with dividends. Last night, it said 'it would be very damaging to public trust in the sector' if the response to the bonus ban was 'to greatly inflate base salaries'. 'We will be closely watching companies' behaviour on executive remuneration in response to the changes, including on base pay,' it said. 'This will inform any changes we may consider necessary when we review the rule in 2027, or earlier if required.'
Times
05-06-2025
- Business
- Times
Bosses at six UK water companies face ban on bonuses
Bosses at six water firms including Thames Water will be banned from receiving bonuses this year because of serious environmental pollution and other failings. It is the first time water chiefs have been banned from receiving such financial incentives, which are worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. The scale of incentives paid to water leaders, totalling more than £112 million over the last decade, stoked public anger as sewage spills hit record levels. Labour's manifesto promised to ban them for water companies that missed standards. Senior executives at Thames Water, Yorkshire Water, Anglian Water, Wessex Water, United Utilities, and Southern Water will now be barred from receiving bonuses for the 2024 to 2025 financial year. The move was made possible by a law passed in February, the first step in the government's reforms of the sector. Louise Beardmore, CEO of United Utilities, which caused more raw sewage spills than any other water firm in 2024, will be blocked from taking her bonus, which was £440,000 last year. Thames Water CEO Chris Weston, who recently defended taking his £195,000 bonus last year, will also miss his. Leaders of three companies escaped the ban, as they avoided serious shortcomings on environmental, financial and customer performance. Those include the sector's highest paid leader — Liv Garfield, the Severn Trent CEO, who earned £3.2 million last year including a £584,000 bonus. Susan Davy, CEO at South West Water, will also be able to take hers, despite the outbreak of a parasite in Devon that caused drinking water contamination in May 2024. Caroline Voaden, the Lib Dem MP for South Devon, said: 'It's hard to think of a company more deserving to have its boss's bonuses banned than South West Water. The company's absence is baffling and throws the validity of the entire policy into doubt.' Liv Garfield, the Severn Trent CEO, last year defended her multimillion-pound pay package and claimed that Severn Trent had made 'massive progress on river quality' DAVE BENETT/GETTY IMAGES FOR VEUVE CLICQUOT Heidi Mottram, the Northumbrian Water CEO who took a £234,000 bonus last year, will also be eligible to take one. Her company was fined £15.6 million this week by Ofwat for excessive sewage spills. There are fears that bosses' salaries will simply be raised to compensate for any missed bonuses. 'Any attempt to inflate base pay as a workaround must be stamped out,' said James Wallace, CEO of the charity River Action. A government source vowed to take more action in future if companies tried a workaround. Were a banned company to flout the ban when company reports are published this summer, regulator Ofwat has powers to claw back the money. Thames Water was hit by a ban because it was responsible for seven of the most serious pollution incidents last year — category one — from the Chilterns to London. It also failed to clear the bar on financial stability, because its credit rating was downgraded to an unacceptable level in April 2024. Southern Water, Anglian Water, United Utilities, and Yorkshire Water were all banned for a single category one pollution incident. Yorkshire also failed on consumer standards, while Wessex Water failed because of a criminal conviction after sewage killed thousands of fish. GETTY However, the CEO of Wessex will be able to take a bonus, as will the chief financial officer at Anglian, because of when they were appointed. The ban is time-limited. If the nine utilities perform satisfactorily this year, bosses will be eligible to take them next year. Two years ago, some chief executives voluntarily waived their bonuses in the face of public anger over environmental failures. The Times's Clean it Up campaign has been calling for stronger regulation to help Britain's rivers and seas. Steve Reed, the environment secretary, said: 'I applaud The Times for shining a light on the payment of unfair bonuses to water bosses. We promised to take action — and this historic ban comes into force today.' The bans come days after Thames Water's rescue creditor pulled out, increasing the risk of the debt-saddled company collapsing into nationalisation. A government-appointed commission said this week the water industry was suffering 'deep-rooted' issues that would require wide-ranging regulatory reforms to solve. driest springs on record. Reservoirs in England were 77 per cent full at the end of May, compared with 85 per cent at the end of May 2022, a year which saw widespread drought. The average for the end of May is 93 per cent. Drought has been officially declared in the northwest. The northeast, Yorkshire and east and west Midlands are classed as in 'prolonged dry weather', the final stage before drought. Youlgrave Waterworks, a tiny water firm which serves 500 homes in Derbyshire, has introduced a hosepipe ban, with other companies keeping them under review. In a sign of the escalating risk of restrictions on water use, the drought group will now meet monthly.
ITV News
16-05-2025
- Business
- ITV News
North West water supplier's profit doubles as customers see bill hikes
A water firm's profit more than doubled in 2024 before it hit customers with a steep rise in bills in April. United Utilities ' more than seven million customers across the North West are seeing their water bills rise by an average of 32% over the next five years. But the biggest annual rise came in April this year, when bills surged by an average of £86 for a typical household. The increase is designed to fund £13.7 billion of upgrades to its pipes and sewers, after the company was accused of illegally pumping raw sewage into Lake Windermere in recent years. But for the year ending 31 March, as it geared up to charge customers more, United Utilities' pre-tax profits also more than doubled to £355 million. And it said on Thursday that it will increase its dividend payout to investors by 4.2% to 34.6p. Chief executive Louise Beardmore said: 'We have delivered another strong set of results for customers, communities and the environment in the North West.' She pointed to the company cutting sewage spills per storm overflow by a quarter last year. The company was recently accused of failing to report more than 100 million litres of untreated sewage that it illegally dumped into Windermere over a three-year period. Ms Beardmore told MPs in February that United Utilities' record on spills and flooding 'isn't good enough'. She took home a pay packet of £1.4 million last year, made up of a base salary worth £690,000, plus benefits, bonuses and long-term share awards. The UK's privatised water companies have faced growing public outrage over the extent of pollution, rising bills, high dividends, and executive pay and bonuses. The results come after a survey revealed households' trust in water companies has fallen to a new low amid the crisis. Fewer households – 53%, down 2% on last year to another all-time low – believe the amount water companies charge is fair, according to the Consumer Council for Water's (CCW) annual Water Matters study.
BBC News
16-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
United Utilities profits double as it hikes customer bills
The profit of water firm United Utilities doubled last year before it hit customers with a steep rise in bills. The company's pre-tax profits more than doubled to £355m for the year ending 31 March 2025 before a 32% hike in bills was introduced to fund £13.7bn in pipe and sewer company has been accused of illegally pumping raw sewage into Lake Windermere in recent Utilities said it had delivered "another strong set of results" and it pointed to the company cutting sewage spills per storm overflow by a quarter last year. The water firm's biggest annual rise came in April this year when bills surged by an average of £86 for a typical than seven million United Utilities customers living in Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Lancashire, Cumbria, most of Cheshire and parts of Derbyshire are to see bills rise by an average of 32% over the next five years. United Utilities hike: How will my bills change? The company said it planned to increase its dividend payout to investors by 4.2%.Chief executive Louise Beardmore said: "We have delivered another strong set of results for customers, communities and the environment in the North West."United Utilities was recently accused of failing to report more than 100 million litres of untreated sewage that it illegally dumped into Windermere over a three-year period. Ms Beardmore told MPs in February that the firm's record on spills and flooding "isn't good enough".She took home a pay packet of £1.4m last year, made up of a base salary valued at £690,000, plus benefits, bonuses and long-term share UK's privatised water companies have faced growing public outrage over the extent of pollution, rising bills, high dividends and executive pay and results come after a survey revealed households' trust in water companies had fallen to a new households - 53%, down 2% on last year to another all-time low - believe the amount water companies charge is fair, according to the Consumer Council for Water's (CCW) annual Water Matters study. Follow BBC Cumbria on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
Rhyl Journal
15-05-2025
- Business
- Rhyl Journal
North West water supplier's profit doubles as it hikes customer bills
The company's more than seven million customers across the North West are seeing their water bills rise by an average of 32% over the next five years. But the biggest annual rise came in April this year, when bills surged by an average of £86 for a typical household. The increase is designed to fund £13.7 billion of upgrades to its pipes and sewers, after the company was accused of illegally pumping raw sewage into Lake Windermere in recent years. But for the year ending March 31, as it geared up to charge customers more, United Utilities' pre-tax profits also more than doubled to £355 million. And it said on Thursday that it will increase its dividend payout to investors by 4.2% to 34.6p. Chief executive Louise Beardmore said: 'We have delivered another strong set of results for customers, communities and the environment in the North West.' She pointed to the company cutting sewage spills per storm overflow by a quarter last year. The company was recently accused of failing to report more than 100 million litres of untreated sewage that it illegally dumped into Windermere over a three-year period. Ms Beardmore told MPs in February that United Utilities' record on spills and flooding 'isn't good enough'. She took home a pay packet of £1.4 million last year, made up of a base salary worth £690,000, plus benefits, bonuses and long-term share awards. The UK's privatised water companies have faced growing public outrage over the extent of pollution, rising bills, high dividends, and executive pay and bonuses. The results come after a survey revealed households' trust in water companies has fallen to a new low amid the crisis. Fewer households – 53%, down 2% on last year to another all-time low – believe the amount water companies charge is fair, according to the Consumer Council for Water's (CCW) annual Water Matters study.
