The shamess boss of crappy Thames Water, Christ Weston, has defended the firm’s indefensible £770k bonuses after abject failure – making him The Biggest drip in Britain
A water chief was slammed for defending top bosses who are pocketing £770,000 in bumper bonuses.
Chris Weston, the chief executive of Thames Water, tried to support the eye-watering sums after the industry watchdog said the huge sums are not justified.
And he sparked fury by calling for steep hikes to customers’ bills to be approved next week to tackle the firm’s debt mountain amid rising numbers of pollution levels.
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Mr Weston, 60, said of huge bonuses: “We need to attract talent to this company… If we don’t offer competitive packages, people will not come and work at Thames.”
“I completely understand that there are customers out there who struggle with their bills,” he added, pointing to bills support offered to customers in the past year. His comments sparked outrage as the nation battles large numbers of raw sewage discharge into our rivers and waterways by water firms.
Campaigner Fergal Sharkey fumed: “They really just don’t give a sh*t anymore and even that’s assuming they did in the first place. And the regulators resource, Ofwat/ Environment Agency? Yep, nothing.”
Mr Weston took the job in January and trousered a £195,000 bonus for his first three months. Last month, regulator Ofwat revealed the firm was planning to use customer cash to pay the bonuses but ruled it was not “justified”.
Thames Water is swimming in £16 billion of debt and is trying to raise another £3 billion to keep it running beyond the middle of next year. Regulators will decide next Thursday whether to allow a proposed 59% bump in bills over the next five years.
The company warned that without the emergency cash it would run out of readies in March. The demand came as it reported a 40% rise in sewage pollution to 359 incidents in the six months to September.
Lib Dem environment spokesperson Tim Farron MP said: “This latest shocking rise in sewage spills must be the final straw for Thames Water. The government must put this broken firm into special administration to give customers the fair deal they deserve.
“Whilst pumping out raw sewage and letting pollution incidents spiral out of control, Thames Water have lined their pockets, mismanaged infrastructure and overseen mounting debts.” Mr Weston blamed a wet spring and summer period for the rising sewage overspills, adding problems with Thames Water’s infrastructure were “decades in the making”.
Giles Bristow, from pressure group Surfers Against Sewage, said: “Yet more excuses from Thames Water for yet another period of shocking sewage performance. What have their customers’ bills been going towards?”