Water boss’s bonus linked to sewage reduction

One of Britain’s top-polluting water suppliers will pay its new chief executive a bonus for reducing the amount of sewage dumped into rivers.

United Utilities said the annual award to Louise Beardmore, who took over earlier this year, will be partly judged on whether the company had cut “storm overflows”.

The scheme could mean Ms Beardmore receives an annual bonus of up to £900,000 if the company reduces overflows by up to 12pc.

That is 130pc of her salary, which is set at £690,000.

For the bonus to pay out anything, overflows must fall by at least 8pc.

Ms Beardmore is also entitled to a long-term bonus scheme which pays out up to £900,000 more depending on the company’s performance, taking the maximum value of her future pay packages to about £2.5m per year.

The changes to the bonus scheme were revealed in United Utilities’ annual report on Monday. The company supplies water to 3m customers in the North West, including Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside.

The company’s remuneration committee said: “We have amended the composition of the bonus scorecard and introduced a new measure to reflect our commitment to tackling storm overflow activations and improve river quality.”

Storm overflow is industry jargon for when heavy rain overwhelms the sewage network and water companies discharge partially treated sewage into rivers or the ocean.

It is meant to be a last-resort relief valve, but suppliers have been criticised for dumping huge amounts of sewage in rivers in the past few years while not investing enough in maintaining and improving their infrastructure.

In 2022, United Utilities was responsible for 69,245 sewage overflows – equivalent to 190 per day.

They lasted for a cumulative 425,490 hours in 1,670 locations, according to data collated by the website Top of the Poops.

United was ranked as one of the worst polluters, occupying seven of the top 10 rankings for the largest amount of sewage overflows on beaches, including New Brighton, Allonby and Morecambe North.

It also held two of the top ten highest overflow figures for rivers, including the River Irwell and River Eden.