Thames Water apologises to prospects however defends bonuses

The chairman of the UK’s greatest water firm has apologised to prospects however defended workers bonus funds.

Sir Adrian Montague, of Thames Water, informed MPs on the Atmosphere, Meals and Rural Affairs choose committee that the utility agency, which provides 16 million prospects in London and elements of south England, was sorry.

He mentioned: “We all know the provision interruptions trigger inconvenience and typically actual hardship, and so I believe the fitting factor to do is to start out the dialogue of the [company’s] turnaround plan by acknowledging we have not all the time served our prospects in addition to we must always, and thru the committee, apologising to them.”

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It is also struggled to lift funding, repay its debt pile, which now stands at £19bn after an emergency mortgage prevented it from operating out of cash and coming into state management.

Regardless of the large debt pile, Sir Adrian defended paying bonuses, saying the corporate was in “a aggressive market” and “now we have to maintain workers”.

“It is true that this enterprise, like many companies, must reward its workers successfully”, he informed committee members. “We do have to reward [staff] competitively.”

If bonuses weren’t paid, “folks will come knocking, they will attempt to select of us the very best workers we have”, Sir Adrian added.

“However the quantities of bonuses paid to workers could be very small in contrast with the capital value of the works that we have been contemplating,” he mentioned.

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Within the first three months of his tenure, which started in January 2024, Thames Water’s chief govt Chris Weston accepted a bonus of £195,000 as a part of his £2.3m pay package deal.

His bonus will be as much as 156% of his wage as a bonus, whereas frontline employees can solely earn between 3% and 6%, he mentioned.

When approached by Sky Information on Tuesday, Mr Weston mentioned he was sorry for the service that the purchasers acquired and “it is not the place we wish it to be, everybody could be very dedicated when it comes to attempting and sorting it out”.

Buyer payments are to rise 35% to about £588 yearly per family by 2030, a determine which Thames Water is in search of to extend.