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Former Wessex Water boss received £170,000 bonus despite ban on performance pay

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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/dec/28/former-wessex-water-boss-received-bonus-despite-ban-on-performance-pay

Colin Skellett and David Cameron in 2011. Wessex Water paid Skellett £157,000 for three months’ work from July to September 2024, when he stepped down as chief executive after 36 years in charge. Photograph: PA Images/Alamy

Company owners say bonus was unrelated to water business and complied with ban after pollution conviction

The former chief executive of Wessex Water received a £170,000 bonus from its parent company last year despite a ban on performance-related pay after criminal pollution failures on his watch.

Colin Skellett received a total of £693,000 in pay from the water company’s Malaysian-owned parent company, YTL Utilities (UK), including the bonus, according to its accounts up to June 2025.

The bonus prompted strong criticism from the Liberal Democrats, which said it showed that the government’s bonus ban was “nowhere near strong enough”.

Wessex was banned from paying bonuses for the year after it was criminally convicted in November 2024 for a sewage pumping station failure six years earlier, which killed more than 2,000 fish and resulted in the company paying a fine of £500,000. In June the government banned bonuses covering the 2024-25 financial year for the chief executives and finance bosses of Wessex and five other companies. Wessex received another £11m fine last month over more sewage failures.

However, the water industry regulator, Ofwat, said that Skellett was able to retain the bonus under the law, because it was related to a different part of the parent company’s business. YTL is developing housing, offices and an arena in an area north of Bristol known as Brabazon.

A spokesperson for Wessex and YTL said that the bonus “entirely relates to his new role and was entirely funded by YTL. In his new role Colin is responsible for YTL UK group businesses including the development of Brabazon New Town”.

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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/dec/28/former-wessex-water-boss-received-bonus-despite-ban-on-performance-pay

April 2023 Surfers Against Sewage and Extinction Rebellion protests in St Agnes, Perranporth, Truro and Charlestown which unveiled spoof Blue Plaques to the MPs and Conservative Government who allowed raw sewage to be dumped in the sea (Image: Surfers Against Sewage)
April 2023 Surfers Against Sewage and Extinction Rebellion protests in St Agnes, Perranporth, Truro and Charlestown which unveiled spoof Blue Plaques to the MPs and Conservative Government who allowed raw sewage to be dumped in the sea (Image: Surfers Against Sewage)
Continue ReadingFormer Wessex Water boss received £170,000 bonus despite ban on performance pay

Thames Water faces collapse as crisis talks take ‘longer than expected’

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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/dec/03/thames-water-half-year-profit-leaps-to-nearly-400m-even-as-collapse-risk-remains

Thames Water has been on the brink of collapse for more than a year, struggling under the weight of £17bn in net debt, built up over decades since privatisation. Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

Debt-ridden utility company warns of ‘material uncertainty’ despite seeing profits rise to more than £400m

Thames Water has said crisis talks to secure its future with lenders are taking “longer than expected” and will drag into 2026 as it faces the prospect of a collapse into government control.

Britain’s biggest water company on Wednesday said it had swung to a profit of £414m for the six months to September helped by bills rising by nearly a third, after losing £149m in the same period in 2024.

Despite the jump in reported profits, the company said there was “material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt” on its status as a going concern. A collapse into government control under a special administration regime (SAR) – a form of temporary nationalisation – “could occur in the very near term” if it is unable to agree the terms of a formal takeover by its controlling lenders.

Those creditors have asked the regulator, Ofwat, and the government for Thames to be let off future fines for pollution, arguing the prospect of hundreds of millions of pounds of extra costs is making a turnaround impossible.

The standoff has already continued for months longer than originally anticipated and the talks were expected to have concluded by the end of the year.

On Wednesday, the company said: “Discussions are taking longer than expected but this is a complex situation and the current phase of the restructuring plan will likely take a number of months to conclude.”

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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/dec/03/thames-water-half-year-profit-leaps-to-nearly-400m-even-as-collapse-risk-remains

Continue ReadingThames Water faces collapse as crisis talks take ‘longer than expected’

Five water firms to raise bills after appeal

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/five-water-firms-raise-bills-after-appeal

 A water bill from Southern Water

PLANS to allow water firms to increase bills yet again, despite decades of mismanagement and ongoing pollution, were condemned by campaigners today.

Five firms are set to raise charges by up to 5 per cent above the limits initially set by regulator Ofwat.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) confirmed that Anglian Water, Northumbrian Water, South East Water, Southern Water and Wessex Water have been permitted to hike their tariffs following an appeal.

The firms argued that Ofwat’s original decision left them unable to meet the regulatory requirements set out for them.

It follows a ruling in December, in which Southern had already been allowed to increase bills by 53 per cent over the next five years.

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Kirstin Baker, who chaired the independent group of experts appointed by the CMA to consider the price controls, said that the request for significant bill increases were “largely unjustified.”

River Action CEO James Wallace said: “Once again, water bill payers are forced to shoulder the cost of decades of failure.

“Millions of households in England face higher bills while rivers continue to suffer from mismanagement by privatised water companies.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/five-water-firms-raise-bills-after-appeal

April 2023 Surfers Against Sewage and Extinction Rebellion protests in St Agnes, Perranporth, Truro and Charlestown which unveiled spoof Blue Plaques to the MPs and Conservative Government who allowed raw sewage to be dumped in the sea (Image: Surfers Against Sewage)
April 2023 Surfers Against Sewage and Extinction Rebellion protests in St Agnes, Perranporth, Truro and Charlestown which unveiled spoof Blue Plaques to the MPs and Conservative Government who allowed raw sewage to be dumped in the sea (Image: Surfers Against Sewage)
Continue ReadingFive water firms to raise bills after appeal

Thames Water creditors ask for up to 15 years’ leniency from river pollution rules

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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/oct/02/thames-water-lenders-submit-new-rescue-plan-to-stave-off-collapse

Thames Water has been crippled by huge debts. Photograph: Sam Oaksey/Alamy

Lenders say a ‘full return to legal, regulatory and environmental compliance’ under new rescue plan would not be completed until at least 2035-2040

Thames Water may not fully comply with rules on pollution of England’s waterways for as long as 15 years, according to a new plan by creditors who are scrambling to avoid the utility being forced into government administration.

The creditors who in effect own Thames Water have said they will commit to paying fines for pollution, as well as writing off more of their loans and investing more in the company, in new proposals published on Thursday.

However, the creditors also said that “a full return to legal, regulatory and environmental compliance” under their plan would not be completed until at least the 2035-2040 period, raising the prospect of sewage levels above legal limits in some places for at least a decade. They will argue for further leniency on fines from the regulator, Ofwat, during that period, and that it will be impossible for the company to make upgrades across London and south-east England more quickly because of the scale of the work needed after years of neglect.

The group of financial institutions, under the new London & Valley Water holding company, has been locked in talks with Ofwat since May over acceptable terms for the hugely complex restructuring of Britain’s biggest water company.

Thames Water has been crippled by huge debts built up over two decades by owners who have been criticised for paying out dividends without investing enough in its leaking pipes and malfunctioning treatment works. That contributed to widespread public outrage over the level of sewage in Britain’s rivers and seas.

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Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/oct/02/thames-water-lenders-submit-new-rescue-plan-to-stave-off-collapse

April 2023 Surfers Against Sewage and Extinction Rebellion protests in St Agnes, Perranporth, Truro and Charlestown which unveiled spoof Blue Plaques to the MPs and Conservative Government who allowed raw sewage to be dumped in the sea (Image: Surfers Against Sewage)
April 2023 Surfers Against Sewage and Extinction Rebellion protests in St Agnes, Perranporth, Truro and Charlestown which unveiled spoof Blue Plaques to the MPs and Conservative Government who allowed raw sewage to be dumped in the sea (Image: Surfers Against Sewage)
Continue ReadingThames Water creditors ask for up to 15 years’ leniency from river pollution rules

Outrage as Thames Water allowed to pay just a fifth of record pollution fines

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/outrage-thames-water-allowed-pay-just-fifth-record-pollution-fines

 A Thames Water van

THAMES WATER will only have to pay a fifth of its record £122.7 million in fines under a “sweetheart deal,” with industry regulator Ofwat branded “outrageous” by water campaigners today.

The heavily indebted utility firm was handed the penalties in May for failures over sewage treatment and paying out dividends.

It has already passed a deadline for paying them by August 20 but has now agreed to pay only a fifth by the end of next month, with the remainder subject to securing a private rescue deal and cash injection.

Ofwat said that it had set a final “backstop date” of March 31 2030 for payment of the remaining penalties whether or not Britain’s biggest water company avoids insolvency.

It would have 30 calendar days to pay up after securing such a deal or at the end of an insolvency process that would see it placed into a government special administration scheme.

River Action chief executive James Wallace said: “It is outrageous that Thames Water has been allowed to kick its fine down the road.

“This fine must be paid by those responsible, not future owners and investors.

“Ordinary people do not get to walk into court and say, ‘I’ll pay the rest of my penalty if I get a better paying job.’ Yet that is exactly the sweetheart deal Thames Water has secured.

“This is not accountability. The investors who drained the company and pocketed £170 million in dividends in October 2023 and March 2024 may never feel the consequences.

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/outrage-thames-water-allowed-pay-just-fifth-record-pollution-fines

April 2023 Surfers Against Sewage and Extinction Rebellion protests in St Agnes, Perranporth, Truro and Charlestown which unveiled spoof Blue Plaques to the MPs and Conservative Government who allowed raw sewage to be dumped in the sea (Image: Surfers Against Sewage)
April 2023 Surfers Against Sewage and Extinction Rebellion protests in St Agnes, Perranporth, Truro and Charlestown which unveiled spoof Blue Plaques to the MPs and Conservative Government who allowed raw sewage to be dumped in the sea (Image: Surfers Against Sewage)
Continue ReadingOutrage as Thames Water allowed to pay just a fifth of record pollution fines