Thames Water chief executive defends six-figure bonuses during grilling by MPs

Thames Water’s chief executive has defended the eye-watering bonuses on offer to the company’s leadership team.

The struggling utility firm’s CEO, Chris Weston, and chairman, Sir Adrian Montague, faced questions from MPs on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee on Tuesday.

Britain’s biggest water company – which provides water services in Maidenhead, Slough and Windsor – is battling for survival and won court approval back in February for a £3billion emergency debt package to help it swerve effective nationalisation.

But its senior leadership team endured a grilling from politicians during the committee on how they could accept six-figure bonuses amid the company’s ongoing struggles.

Addressing chief executive Chris Weston, chairman of the select committee MP Alistair Carmichael (Lib Dem, Orkney and Shetland) said: “You have laid some heavy emphasis on transparency and leadership.

“You yourself are on a total package of £2.3million, which is a generous package for a very responsible job. Three months into your tenure, you accepted a bonus of £195,000.

“With hindsight, was that a wise thing to do if you were wanting to assert that sort of leadership in your company?”

The utility firm’s chief executive said his financial package and bonus structure had been agreed before he joined the company.

He added his salary and bonus entitlement was not the sole reason he joined the company and he felt his experience could make a difference to a firm that ‘matters to society’.

Labour MP Helena Dollimore questioned how frontline Thames Water staff could be entitled to bonuses between three and six per cent of their salary while Mr Weston could earn 70 times this amount in bonus payments.

She said: “If that work they are doing on the frontline is so vital, why is the percentage bonus they receive so much less than what the top leadership at the company receives?”

Mr Weston responded: “I accept that it is a lot of money, and I accept it is considerably more than the frontline.

“We try to offer packages that are competitive in the market so we can attract and retain the people we need within the business.”

The committee meeting heard how 469 pollution incidents were recorded at Thames Water last year, up from 350 the previous year.

The company also faced questions on whether it could run out of water if the dry weather continues.

Mr Weston said: “I am confident we will not run out of water. I am not confident we will not need to restrict usage because that will depend on what the weather does and what rainfall happens between now and the summer.”