Professor John Robertson OBA
In the Guardian yesterday:
Total remuneration at companies in England and Wales – many of them under scrutiny for sewage discharge – was £15m in 2024-25 –
Leaving aside the fact that they are responsible for 10 times as much water, serving an eleventh of the population of England and Wales, the Chief Executive of Scottish Water might be expected to earn around an eleventh of the total paid to the CE’s of the water boards there, £1.3m.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23728041.scottish-water-accused-50k-salary-rise-new-chief/
The Scottish Water CE earns roughly one-quarter of the going rate in England and Wales for the best water in the world –
https://www.foodandwine.com/best-tap-water-in-the-world-report-11681582
Rivers that cause sepsis and kidney failure?
https://inews.co.uk/sport/boat-race-risk-sepsis-kidney-failure-dirty-thames-water-3619097
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
It seems like the English should keep their “taps aff”.
Also, CE’s renumeration in England- water lot of money.
I’ll get my coat..
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Aye not just bucket loads either…
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”Best Water in the World ”….not in the eyes of the lying Labour Party , however .
They defend the indefensible English Water Privatisation by maligning the best run water company in the UK . One wonders if soggy brown envelopes have been at work .
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For The Herald and its ilk that supposedly ‘serve’ Scotland, context and perspective MUST be kept from voters at all costs. The future of the Union depends on it!
About the private company, Portsmouth Water, one of the smaller regional water supply/service companies in England:
CEO’s remuneration: salary (for 2025) = £222,000; total remuneration (for 2025) including pension and bonuses = £754,000.
Facts about Portsmouth Water: area supplied = 868 square kilometres; population supplied = 740,000.
The ultimate parent company of Portsmouth Water Limited is Ancala Fornia Topco Pte Limited which is Singapore registered and resident in the UK for tax purposes.
Source: https://www.portsmouthwater.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PW_Annual_Reporting_Accounts_2025.pdf
About the not-for-profit company, Dwr Cymru (Welsh Water):
CEO’s remuneration: salary (for 2025/26) = £450,000; total remuneration (for 2025/26) including pension and bonuses = £894,000.
Dwr Cymru serves a population c. 3 million people.
Source: https://corporate.dwrcymru.com/en/library/group-annual-report-and-accounts
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At least the Guardian article confirms yet again why there was so much Scottish media activity over ‘fat cat pay rises’ in SW, deflection for the incoming row over CE income in England’s pirate oops private water sector https://archive.ph/m8Joh
For a sense of scale of the corruption in England’s body politic, try Richard Murphy’s ” Might Wes Streeting stop taking the bungs? ” – Taking Richard’s figures at face value as he’s meticulous in that regard, 616k in bungs oops donations, Wes ‘buy me now’ smile says it all really… Now what was that about CEOs ?
I’ve no idea of the ‘going rate’ for ‘high flying’ CEs is, never been one – If Alex Plant justified making 295k in 2023 so far as customers are concerned, fair enough – As comparative, James Cook entirely justified his 185k at the same period for churning out blatant propaganda to both customers, did he not ?
I relax my valise…
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‘If Alex Plant justified making 295k in 2023 so far as customers are concerned, fair enough ..’
As mentioned in an earlier TuS blog post, the Cunliffe report on the water industry in England and Wales when comparing performance of different models of ownership (its Table 7) on the key issue of ‘Customer Satisfaction’ chose only to quote overall ‘GB scores’.
The Holyrood Parliament’s Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee on April1, 2025 held a session to consider the latest Annual Report from Scottish Water. Written evidence from Scottish Water had this: ‘Strong public support is reflected in the findings of the January 2025 UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI), which is based on a survey of over 15,000 consumers, and found Scottish Water to be the most trusted water company in the UK and among the top performing utilities.’
And on the views of companies in the supply chains of UK water companies, from British Water: ‘Water and wastewater company performance survey – 2024 results‘. (see https://www.britishwater.co.uk/page/SupplyChainImpactSurveys )
About this survey: ‘The water company performance survey has been undertaken by British Water since 2003. The aim of the survey is to capture the views of individuals in the UK water sector who have worked in the regulated industry, so we can understand how the supply community views its major clients. The results are shown as the average score for each of the criteria for each water company and for comparison, the average of the total scores received for each of the criteria (the industry average).’
Overall ranking among 12 water service companies across the UK:
2023: 1st Northumbrian Water; 2nd equal Scottish Water
2022: 1st Scottish Water; 2nd Northumberland Water.
From 12 first order and c.41 second order criteria, ranking for selected categories:
‘Professional qualities – ‘Accuracy – Intelligent Client’: ranked 1st equal
‘Professional qualities – Technical Competence’: ranked 4th
‘Innovation – overall: ranked 3rd
‘Innovation – Appetite for Innovation’: ranked equal 2nd
Following policy – overall: ranked 2nd
Following policy – ‘Environment’: ranked 2nd
And on one example of ‘appetite for innovation’, also from the British Water website: ‘Xylem – Scottish Water Monitoring Project Wins Award For Xylem’ ( 7 August 2024).
‘A ground-breaking project that is enabling continuous remote monitoring of a 16km trunk main has been recognised at the Water Industry Awards.
The Blairlinnans SoundPrint Acoustic Fibre Optic System, a joint project between Xylem and Scottish Water – and a European first, was named Asset Management Initiative of the Year at the awards ceremony on 4 July 2024.
‘The Blairlinnans water main is a 42 inch (1,067mm) pre-stressed concrete (PSC) pipeline that runs from the Blairlinnans Water Treatment Works to a service reservoir in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. The pipeline was installed in 1974 and is critical to the ongoing operation of Scottish Water’s supply network.
‘Scottish Water identified the main as a high-risk asset, which prompted a complete engineering assessment to understand its true condition and prevent an unexpected burst.’
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