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.
This story is from the November 22, 2024 edition of The Independent.
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This story is from the November 22, 2024 edition of The Independent.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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