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Water company bosses received more than £100m in salaries and bonuses over the past decade despite overseeing a massive sewage crisis on the country’s waterways, new figures have revealed.
An examination of water companies’ annual accounts since 2013 found that nine chief executives paid themselves a total of £114 million, including £61 million in bonuses and benefits.
This comes as the dumping of raw sewage into Britain’s rivers, lakes and seas has become a national scandal and a key election battleground.
According to the data provided IOne of the highest earners is Liv Garfield, chief executive of Severn Trent Water, who earned £3.9 million in 2021/22 and £3.2 million in 2022/23.
Labour’s investigation analysed the annual accounts of the nine major water companies, showing the total remuneration for each chief executive officer, as well as a breakdown by salary, bonuses, benefits and incentives.
Earlier, the Conservatives published separate NHS data showing more than 10,000 people have been admitted to hospital with water-borne illnesses since 2019. Sir Keir Starmer’s party and the Liberal Democrats have both stepped up their attacks on the “Conservative sewage scandal”.
Labour highlighted new analysis of NHS hospital admissions data which showed the number of people diagnosed with water-borne illnesses has almost doubled in the past two years, reaching a record 3,261 cases last year.
The sharpest increase was in the number of typhoid cases, which doubled to more than 603.
Typhoid fever is usually a “rare” disease in the UK, but is more prevalent in areas with poor sanitation and limited access to clean water, according to the NHS.
The Environment Agency’s 2023 data shows the number of sewage spills is up 54 per cent compared to 2022 and 13 per cent compared to 2020.
Anger is growing over the polluted state of England’s rivers and coasts, with no stretch of river classed as being in good overall condition and hundreds of pollution danger alerts issued at popular beaches across the country last year.
Labour’s shadow environment secretary Steve Reid said the NHS figures were “sickening”, adding that the Conservatives had turned a blind eye to water companies dumping tons of raw sewage into rivers, lakes and seas, putting people’s health at risk.
Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats have come up with a plan to save the Late Cretaceous river, which their analysis shows will see around 49,000 hours of sewage inflow in 2023, more than double the amount in the previous year.
Fed by underground chalk reservoirs, the streams are some of the rarest freshwater habitats in the world and are found mainly in southern England and Yorkshire.
Sir Ed Davey’s party has reiterated proposals to launch a public consultation within 100 days of the next government taking office, which could see new Blue Flag status awarded to protect rivers and lakes from sewage dumping.
Labor has promised to ban bonuses for water chiefs if they fail to stop sewage spills in time, and will also bring criminal charges against executives who consistently fail to meet environmental targets.
The Conservatives also announced in February that they would block bonuses from April 2024 from paying out water commissioners guilty of criminal water pollution.
The party also claims to have quadrupled the number of inspections of water companies, to 4,000 inspections per year by April 2025, rising to 10,000 per year from April 2026.
The Conservative Party has been approached for comment.
Severn Trent Water was also approached for comment.
2024 Election
Rishi Sunak, Sir Keir Starmer and other party leaders are campaigning. I‘s election live blog is your go-to place for everything general election news.
All the major political parties have released their manifestos. Iof A breakdown of all pledges from the Conservative Party, the Green Party, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Reform UK.
I People have signed the Save Britain’s Rivers manifesto, calling on all political parties to work to improve our waterways. The Liberal Democrats were the first to back the campaign, followed by the Green Party. Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the campaign “hugely important” but stopped short of fully endorsing it.