England's most prolific polluters hand water boss extra £1.3m - despite ban on bonuses
Last year, the government delivered new legislation to prevent underperforming water companies from offering bonus payments to their executives.
The boss of England's worst-polluting water company has been handed an extra £1.3m this year despite the government's ban on bonuses for failing firms.
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Figures seen by LBC show that Anglian Water, which supplies almost 7 million customers across the East of England and Hartlepool, recorded more than 1,000 pollution incidents in 2025 - the highest total of any water company in more than a decade.
Despite the government introducing a bonus ban for the worst-polluting firms, Anglian Water’s CEO, Mark Thurston, was awarded an additional £1.3m, including a £500,000 “retention payment”.
On top of his base salary of £593,000, this takes his overall pay package to £1.86m.
Campaigners believe the decision of the firm’s parent company, Anglian Water Group Limited (AWG), raises questions about how water company boards assess the performance of their executives.
AWG insists that Thurston’s payments comply with the bonus ban and, while pollution performance is “not where it needs to be”, improving it is one of the firm’s “highest priorities”.
The government says it will “leave no stone unturned” in ensuring its bonus ban is observed.
Across 2024 and 2025, there were over 11,600 reports of sewage, chemicals such as fertilizers, and other pollutants entering waterways in England and Wales.
Anglian Water was the only firm to record more than 1,000 incidents in both years. In September 2025, it was hit with a £63m fine from the water regulator, Ofwat, for failing to operate, maintain and upgrade assets such as sewage pipes.
Thames Water, which could be brought into special administration in the coming weeks, was responsible for 1,828 incidents across the same two years.
Both firms point to increasing infrastructure investment as part of their plans to reduce sewage spills.
'Contempt for the public'
Robert Forrester, a former Environment Agency employee who uncovered the figures using transparency laws, believes the scale of polluting and high pay for water company executives show “contempt” for billpayers.
“They see ‘most prolific polluter’ as a good thing almost, as worthy of a bonus because they've saved the company the most money,” Forrester said of Anglian Water’s attitude to sewage spills.
“They've dumped sewage in a manner which has been profiteering… It just shouldn't be happening, and it's showing a complete contempt for the public from the water company side to say that we're going to reward this kind of performance.
“But it’s also contempt for the public from the regulator and government because they've shown that this legislation that was supposed to stop bonus payments isn't worth the paper it's written on.
“There should be a clampdown on those incident numbers as well, and there hasn't been because again there are processes in place to bypass that type of regulation.”
Last year, the government delivered new legislation to prevent underperforming water companies from offering bonus payments to their executives.
The Water (Special Measures) Act initially prevented six firms from paying bonuses: Anglian Water, Southern Water, Thames Water, United Utilities, Wessex Water and Yorkshire Water.
It is believed that eight companies will be covered by the bonus ban in 2025-26.
The chairwoman of Anglian’s remuneration committee, Kath Durrant, said “due to a category one pollution incident [the most serious level of environmental emergency]”, executives were not paid a bonus for their work with the water company.
Instead, extra payments were offered for their roles in boosting the performance of “other commercial activities”, and were funded by its shareholders in Australia, Canada and Abu Dhabi.
Clive Lewis, whose constituency is supplied by Anglian Water, told LBC the company "is not fit for purpose".
"I've spoken to everyone from farmers to business people who say that what they get from Anglian Water - what they're paying, with the bills going up - is not fit for purpose," Mr Lewis said.
"The only way you can ever get water under control is by taking into public ownership. More control [and] more regulation is just polishing a turd."
Thurston, who earned £4.5m of taxpayers’ money during his six-year tenure at HS2, was not the only water boss to have been handed a lucrative retention payment despite the bonus ban.
Northumbrian Water’s CEO, Heidi Mottram, for example, has been awarded a £1.5m retention payment over the next five years, despite the company expecting bonuses to be banned because of its environmental performance.
The firm describes Ms Mottram as “a highly marketable individual working in a sector where remuneration is exceptionally highly regulated and often subject to media scrutiny”.
Elsewhere, United Utilities, which operates predominantly across the north west of England, was blocked from offering its CEO, Louise Beardmore, a £417,000 bonus for the financial year 2024/25 because of their environmental performance.
However, Beardmore will receive an £830,000 bonus this year as the company is no longer prevented from offering such awards. Along with an additional £435,000 in “allowances”, her total pay will reach £2.5m, up 79% on the previous year. United Utilities told LBC none of Beardmore’s bonus will be paid for by customers.
Andy Burnham has promised to address mounting public concerns about the water sector by placing companies “under greater public control”. The prime minister has not ruled out bringing the country’s biggest firm, Thames Water, into temporary public ownership.
Polling suggests that public opinion has moved decisively towards the nationalisation of Britain’s water companies. A YouGov survey from May said 82% of Brits believe that water companies should be operated in the public sector, with just 8% supporting them remaining under private control.
Campaigners argue the support for nationalisation is driven by the consistent discharge of sewage in Britain’s waters.
Sewage spill hours dropped by 48% in 2025, but the Environment Agency says this decline was largely as a result of drier weather, rather than improved performance.
Water companies accept that to reduce the incidence of sewage dumping, there will need to be a significant increase in infrastructure investment; Water UK, which represents companies across the industry, is helping to coordinate a £105bn investment programme between 2025-30, which it says will halve sewage spills from storm overflows.
This will, in part, be financed by an increase in household bills. Under the regulator’s plan, the average water bill will increase by 36% between 2025 and 2030 to £597.
For some customers, that price rise will be even steeper, with Anglian customers paying 44% extra, taking the average bill to £757.
A spokesperson for Anglian Water said: “The Chief Executive and Chief Finance Officer roles operate across the whole of the Anglian Water Group, which includes businesses which are separate to the water company and which carry out a range of commercial activities and generate annual revenues of around £800 million.
“Payments from the group are not in any way funded by customers… As we deliver the largest investment programme in our history, experienced and consistent leadership is critical. In this context, and recognising that recruiting new leadership would incur significant costs to both customers and the wider business, our shareholders decided to fund targeted, time-limited retention arrangements to maintain leadership continuity. These arrangements do not replace bonuses and are not paid for by Anglian Water Services or customers.
“We know our pollution performance is not where it needs to be, and improving it is one of our highest priorities. We’re investing in more preventative maintenance, expanding the use of AI and real-time monitoring to identify issues before they occur, increasing proactive blockage clearance, and strengthening our operational teams.”
'No stone unturned'
Meanwhile, a DEFRA spokesperson told LBC: "The government has taken swift action against water companies who are failing to perform, making it a criminal offence to cover up illegal sewage spills.
“We have banned undeserved bonuses for water company bosses and any attempt to circumvent the rules is completely unacceptable.
“We will leave no stone unturned in ensuring bonuses can only be paid where companies deliver environmental and customer outcomes and Ofwat’s review of the bonus rule will carefully consider if any requirements need to be tightened."