The North West’s Water Supplier United Utilities is one of six Companies who have been banned from paying executives bonuses by the Government
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 Government passed the law back in February as part of its reforms of the sector.
Louise Beardmore, CEO of United Utilities will be blocked from taking her bonus, which was £440,000 last year.
There are however fears that salaries will simply be raised to compensate for any missed bonuses.
A United Utilities spokesperson, said: “We have a long track record of ensuring performance related pay for executives is closely linked to the outcomes that matter most to our customers. In addition, our performance related pay is funded by shareholders, not by customers.
“We will comply fully with the new remuneration rules, which mean any Category One incident results in no bonus being paid to Board Executive Directors. This particular incident did not involve pollution but was related to fish being killed when they got trapped in a valve during a routine safety inspection at a reservoir.
“We will ensure lessons are learned from this incident, while remaining focused on our £13 billion investment programme – our biggest ever – which will improve services for customers and the environment, support 30,000 jobs and deliver an estimated £35 billion of economic value to the North West.”
