Water bosses get £50m in wages despite supply crisis and impending garden hose ban

The UK’s largest water companies have handed their bosses a stunning £50million despite billions of gallons of water leaking from mains every day, looming bans on garden hoses and public outrage over sewage being dumped into rivers.

The Mail on Sunday shows that the bulging pay packages have been handed out by the dozens of largest companies over the past three years. More than half of them gave their chief executives at least £1 million last year, despite the cost of living crisis fueled by skyrocketing household bills.

These include Southern Water, which has imposed a ban on garden hoses and pool filling from Friday, and Thames Water, which warned that restrictions may be imminent.

The Environment Agency said extended dry weather in most of England is ‘the first stage of drought’, which could lead to more widespread bans.

Campaigners have complained that Britain is unprepared for drier periods due to leaks in the network and failure to address dwindling water resources.

Last week it was found that water companies were leaking up to a quarter of their supply every day, almost 2.4 billion liters.

Of the 12 companies surveyed by The Mail on Sunday, Severn Trent’s Liv Garfield is the highest-paid CEO, receiving £9.8 million over the past three years.

She is followed by Steve Mogford of United Utilities, with £9 million. Thames Water paid his former chief Steve Robertson and his replacement Sarah Bentley a total of £3.4 million.

Severn Trent, United Utilities and Thames make up almost half of the £50 million total.

They face growing public anger over sewage being pumped into rivers. Over the three-year period, there have been more than a million wastewater discharges into Britain’s rivers, increasing the magnitude of the problem.

Earlier this month, the Environment Agency criticized water companies for their “shocking” performance on pollution.

The Rijksdienst labeled incidents last year as the ‘worst we’ve seen in years’. Emma Howard Boyd, who chairs the agency, said executives and investors “have been well rewarded while the environment pays the price.”

She released a damning report calling on the water company bosses responsible for the most serious incidents to go to jail.

“It’s appalling that water companies’ performance on pollution has hit a new low,” she said.

“We intend to make it too painful for them to continue.”

Luke Hildyard, director of the High Pay Center, criticized the scale of the water industry’s salaries. He said water bosses were paid as ‘entrepreneurs’ for the work of a ‘public servant’, adding: ‘Water is a public good. You don’t have to be a particularly good salesperson to get people to drink or wash in it.

‘These are examples of how we greatly overestimate people in leadership positions. They take a much larger share of the salaries than they earn, at the expense of everyone else.’

Campaigner and former pop singer Feargal Sharkey has become a fierce critic of water company failures. He told The Mail on Sunday that rewards given out to bosses “only reinforced the idea that it pays to pollute.”

Many companies in England maintain that their environmental and business results are improving. But their bosses are paid much more than their counterparts in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, where the organizations are structured differently and are not for profit.

Sarah Venning, chief executive of Northern Ireland Water, the least well-paid of the twelve, received £215,000 last year. Douglas Millican of Scottish Water made £558,000.