The Liberal Democrats analyzed corporate papers and found that executives from water companies in England and Wales received £9,126,858 in the 2023/2024 fiscal year, up from £9,012,777 the previous year.
Total payments to executives, including base pay and pension contributions, came to over £20 million, which is just less than the £20.2 million entire remuneration received the previous year.
Additionally, pension contributions rose from £1.55 million to £1.68 million.
Seniors at the water firm received base salary of over £9.2 million, which was less than the £9.7 million recorded a year earlier.
Sewage discharges into British rivers reached a record high.
According to the Environment Agency’s most recent data, water companies’ untreated sewage discharges doubled from 1.8 million hours in 2022 to a record 3.6 million hours in 2023. Additionally, there were 464,000 spills reported, up from 301,000 in 2022.
Water companies are currently allowed to release sewage from storm overflows, but only in extreme circumstances and during periods of intense precipitation.
