Thames Water drops £1m bonuses for top bosses after government criticism

Thames Water drops £1m bonuses for top bosses after government criticism

The payments were linked to the struggling firm securing a rescue loan of up to £3bn to stave off collapse earlier this year.

Thames Water freezes executives’ ‘retention payments’ after backlash

Crisis talks with regulator and government led to agreement to pause controversial payouts

Thames Water drops £1m bonuses for top bosses after government critici

Thames Water has “withdrawn” plans to pay senior bosses bonuses linked to the company securing a £3bn emergency loan, the environment secretary has said. Steve Reed confirmed the proposals had been dropped during an Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) committee session with MPs on Tuesday. The so-called retention plan would have amounted to 50% of senior bosses’ salaries – leading to them getting £1m on top of their annual salaries and re…

Water companies should be taken into public ownership now | Letter - Business Fast

I welcome the government’s decision to block Thames Water from borrowing money to pay bosses’ bonuses (Report, 15 May), but this is only a first step to tackling the crisis in our water industry – a crisis that will only intensify if excessively dry conditions persist. As if mismanaging our precious water wasn’t enough, many companies haven’t hesitated to take on unsustainable debt or pay billions to shareholders: £78bn has been paid out in divi…

The chairman of Thames Water says he 'may have misspoken' when he told MPs the firm's lenders 'insisted' on top bosses receiving large bonuses.

In a letter, Sir Adrian Montague says creditors 'agreed to' rather than 'insisted upon' the payments linked to a rescue loan of up to three-billion pounds. The so-called 'retention incentives' could see execs get one-million pounds on top of their salary and bonus.

Steve Reed says Thames Water's attempt to circumvent the ban on executive bonuses by renaming them was the "wrong thing to do" - Water Magazine

During the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee session on the morning of May 20, 2025, Environment Secretary Steve Reed MP addressed concerns regarding Thames Water’s financial practices, particularly the awarding of executive bonuses amid the company’s financial difficulties. Reed has been outspoken in his criticism of Thames Water’s executive ‘retention incentives’, particularly in light of the company’s financial struggles an…