What the Herald won’t tell you about the obscene pay of English water bosses for water that causes sepsis and kidney failure
Today, in the Guardian:
Wessex Water awarded its chief executive an above-inflation pay increase even as the company was banned from paying bonuses because of sewage spills, it has emerged.
Ruth Jefferson received a 14% base salary increase in October, from £590,000 to £670,000, before other benefits, according to accounts published this month. It was far above the 3.5% given to workers, and put her pay at 18 times that of the company’s median employee. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jul/18/wessex-water-chief-pay-rise-bonus-ban
On 1 March 2026, the Herald was keen to tell Scots:
Calls are being made for an independent inquiry into Scottish Water amid soaring customer charges and eye-watering levels of executive pay and bonuses. Scotland’s largest trade union Unison is behind the demand after it commissioned an in-depth investigation into the company, which is publicly-owned, fearing is being privatised “by stealth”.
From the Guardian in July 2025:
Total remuneration at companies in England and Wales – many of them under scrutiny for sewage discharge – was £15m in 2024-25. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jul/26/water-chiefs-pay-rises-england-wales-ban-bonuses-sewage
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
Also, from stewartb
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
So, the Scottish Water CE earns roughly one-quarter of the going rate in England and Wales
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Scottish water execs are on the gravy train as well. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24951935.scotgov-pay-rules-bent-give-new-scottish-water-ceo-50-pay-rise/
https://news.stv.tv/scotland/scottish-water-bosses-to-get-400k-pay-rise-amid-customer-price-hike. There is NOTHING special about all of these execs save an ability to navigate the oleaginous political world. Let’s start with MSP salaries at the median Scottish level to reflect in small measure their constituent base and move on to public services from there. Top execs should be on a small multiple of median wage and NO-ONE in public service or in a company receiving government funding should earn more than the First Minister.
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Except that the domestic part of Scottish Water is NOT in private corporate grifters’ hands. Not sure anbout the business side, perhaps worth looking into the execs’ who head that area of Scottish Water which I presume was sold off by Labour many years ago…
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In the early 2000s an encounter with Richard Granger, then the highest paid civil servant in the UK at £280,000 per annum was truly eye opening. Granger was responsible for the (English) National Programme for IT (NPfIT) rebranded (they always are!) Connecting for Health (CfH) which was written off with a £13billion loss. Granger was reminiscent in appearance and style of the late Bob Hoskins in character as Harold Shand in ‘The Long Good Friday’. Not verbatim but near enough “Don’t ask any questions. I’m not here to answer questions”. He gave the impression of being truly knowledgeless about NHS (or any other) IT…no-one told this story would believe it until his mother campaigned against proposed closure of her local hospital – Granger studied one single module on IT, and failed it, as part of a (2:2) geology degree https://www.theguardian.com/society/2006/nov/12/epublic.technology And no-one who attempted to engage with him that day was the least bit surprised. THE HIGHEST PAID CIVIL SERVANT IN THE UK?? – NOTHING HAS CHANGED!!
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