Severn Trent boss pockets a £3.2m bonus regardless of rising sewage spills

Swimming in it: Severn Trent’s boss Liv Garfield was paid £3.2m last year after pocketing a bumper bonus

Severn Trent’s boss raked in £3.2million in the last financial year after pocketing a bumper bonus despite rising sewage spills. 

Amid a crisis engulfing the water industry, Liv Garfield was handed a £584,000 bonus on top of her £799,600 base salary. 

The rest was made up of long-term bonuses, pension and benefit payments, according to Severn Trent’s annual report, and took her pay over the past five years to almost £16million. 

A few months ago, the utility firm was fined £2million for dumping sewage. 

And the latest official figures showed that the number of sewage spills connected to Severn Trent rose by a third to 60,000 in 2023. 

The Midlands-based water giant is plotting a huge price rise that will see customers charged an extra £143 a year by 2030. 

Severn Trent said Garfield’s bonus was higher in the year to March 31 due to the firm’s ‘strong performance’. 

On Monday, Pennon, embattled owner of South West Water, said boss Susan Davy would be paid £860,000 for the last financial year, compared to £543,000 a year earlier