The release of company accounts in mid-July 2026 laid bare a familiar pattern in the English and Welsh water sector. Total remuneration for chief executives and chief financial officers at 14 major suppliers rose 1.5 percent to £25.3 million in the year ending March 2026. This increase occurred despite a statutory ban on performance-related bonuses introduced the previous year for directors whose companies trigger failures on pollution, customer service, financial resilience or criminal standards.
Eight of the 14 companies expect to fall under that ban for the 2025-26 period. Yet the data show executives continued to receive higher overall pay through salary uplifts, retention bonuses, shareholder-funded allowances and payments from parent companies. These mechanisms sit outside the formal prohibition on board-level performance bonuses.
Mark Thurston, chief executive of Anglian Water, received £1.9 million, which included a £500,000 retention payment, as The Guardian revealed. Louise Beardmore at United Utilities saw her total reach £2.5 million, up £1.1 million on the prior year, incorporating a £435,000 annual allowance paid by shareholders. Ruth Jefferson, chief executive of Wessex Water, secured a 14 percent salary rise that lifted her pay to £791,000, The Guardian reported, even as the company faced scrutiny over sewage spills.
Thames Water paid £4.1 million in bonuses to senior management under a retention plan that does not fall within the ban on regulated board directors. Nicola Shaw received an additional £600,000 from the parent company of Yorkshire Water or Kelda on top of £732,000 in fixed pay. Northumbrian Water awarded one executive a £300,000 retention payment. Pay at Severn Trent and Southern Water, by contrast, fell year on year.
The Water (Special Measures) Act 2025 granted Ofwat explicit powers to regulate executive remuneration. The performance-related pay prohibition came into force in June 2025. Regulators and ministers have repeatedly stated that bonuses should reflect only positive outcomes for the environment and customers. Ofwat has warned that pay decisions will now face sharper regulatory examination.
Yet the latest figures demonstrate how companies have adapted. Salary increases and retention payments, often described as non-performance related and funded by shareholders rather than customers, have sustained or lifted overall compensation. This approach highlights persistent challenges in linking rewards directly to long-term stewardship of rivers, coastal waters and public infrastructure.
