Thames Water is facing fury from parliament after handing its finance chief a £1m “signing-on fee” last month. Company chairman Adrian Montague argued that such massive payments are a “necessary incentive” for staff retention.
The news of the bonus is particularly outrageous given that the company is currently drowning in some £20 billion debt. The threat of temporary nationalisation looms ever larger over Thames Water, unless it can reach a deal with its creditors and the government.
Thames Water’s record of neglect and waste
In June 2025, Ofwat rolled out new powers to block water bosses’ bonuses if their companies miss key targets. The water regulator boasted that it blocked a potential £4m of so-called ‘performance-related pay’ by November alone.
Last year, Thames Water received a record £122.7m fine for its failures. Ofwat said the supplier had:
let down its customers and failed to protect the environment.
However, just last month, the Canaryreported that:
The company hiked payouts to “key management personnel” from £2.8m in the year to March 2025 to £4.1m this year.
In case you’re wondering why Ofwat hasn’t stepped in, the regulator’s new powers only apply to companies’ chief executives and finance managers. Instead, Thames Water paid out to other members of the executive team and the board. […]
Meanwhile, the company also increased chief executive Chris Weston’s pay, and issued him a hefty £99,000 bonus to boot. ‘But wait,’ we hear you cry, ‘didn’t you just say the water companies aren’t allowed to pay their CEOs a bonus anymore?’
Well, you see, this bonus was actually deferred from before the ban was introduced. Nothing at all to see here, folks.
Regarding this rules-dodging behaviour, then-environment secretary Emma Reynolds said:
It flies in the face of basic fairness, and the British public are right to be furious.
Meanwhile, since issuing a hosepipe ban on 23 July, Thames Water has lost over 10.7 billion litres of drinking water to leakage. Or, to put it another way, the company’s poorly maintained infrastructure has wasted enough treated water to fill 4,271 Olympic swimming pools in just over a fortnight.
Oh please, we need the signing bonus…
So, what did Thames Water do in light of the criticism of its previous creative interpretation of the regulations (and its continued failure)? Why, it spoke to its lawyers to make sure it could get away with it again, of course.
The failing water company reportedly sought legal advice before issuing its latest ludicrous signing bonus. As such, Steve Buck — the new finance chief — received the £1m ‘reward’ in July 2026, despite joining back in April 2025.
In a letter to the parliamentary Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Montague acknowledged that the public would likely believe such massive payments were “unjust”. Likewise, he also confirmed that the million came from the ’emergency’ money provided by his company’s creditors.
Complaining that Thames Water was having issues with staff recruitment and retention, he wrote that:
The majority of the team were brought in recently to fix the problems the company faces and are not responsible for causing those problems.
These talented and experienced individuals have opportunities for roles outside Thames Water and, in many cases, have been actively approached by other companies.
These roles would be less in the public gaze, less difficult and more remunerative.
Montague also predicted these issues would persist even if the government placed the company under special administration.
Government outcry(ish)
Now, following the news of Buck’s signing bonus, PM Andy Burnham’s spokesperson said:
It’s unacceptable that one of the worst-performing water companies is handing out huge payments to its executives when it should be focusing on improving performance and rebuilding public trust.
We’ve banned bonuses for polluting water bosses. We expect companies to follow both the letter and the spirit of the rules.
Quick, someone remind the Labour Party that it’s meant to be in charge. Just complaining that those bad companies aren’t following “the spirit of the rules” is a pathetic reaction to the situation.
‘Someone’, in this case, was Alistair Carmichael MP, chair of the Environment Committee. The Lib Dem parliamentarian admonished that:
Money should be going into improving services, not remunerating already well-paid senior executives.
The government were clear in the early days that they wanted this to stop. It is obvious that they have not succeeded in this. We need to hear now from them about what they intend to do about it.
Meanwhile, Green leader Zack Polanski took the opportunity to call for the nationalisation of the nation’s water supply:
Water companies are pumping shit into our rivers & seas and charging us extra for the privilege.
They’re in charge of our vital water security as temperatures hit record levels.
Enough words from the Labour Government.
Time for action.
Nationalise.
Newly minted PM Andy Burnham has stated that he’d like to see “greater public control” of energy and water utilities. However, whether this will result in tinkering around the edges of the UK’s broken system or something more radical remains to be seen.
Not that we’re holding our breath here at the Canary, of course.
Featured image via the Canary
By Grace
From Canary via This RSS Feed.