Labour bans unfair bonuses for Southern Water and Thames Water bosses

Unfair bonuses have been banned with immediate effect for senior bosses at Southern Water and Thames Water as part of this Labour Government’s Plan for Change after tough new legislation came into effect.

Under these new rules, introduced with the landmark Water (Special Measures) Act 2025, companies including Southern Water and Thames Water are not permitted to pay bonuses to water bosses that oversee poor environmental and customer outcomes.

This action delivers on a key Labour manifesto commitment and has been backdated to apply to any bonuses relating to the financial year from April last year.

Southern Water awarded over £5.4 million in bonuses and incentives over the last decade, paying £312,000 in bonuses last year alone, while Thames Water paid over £7.5 million in bonus over the last decade and £770,000 in bonuses last year.

Companies that do meet Ofwat’s standards will still be eligible to pay executives bonuses – a powerful incentive for bosses at Southern Water and Thames Water to deliver immediate environmental improvements, better customer outcomes, and improve financial resilience.

In Crawley in the year preceding 2024, sewage was pumped into Crawley’s waterways 66 times, equating to 34 days of nonstop sewage release, a figure which has dropped to two incidences since the start of 2025.

Cleaning up our rivers, lakes and seas is essential after 14 years of Conservative failure. The Conservatives even tried to hide the extent of sewage spills before the election, with Robbie Moore, then the Water Minister and now a Shadow Environment Minister in Kemi Badenoch’s team, telling Environment Agency officials not to put the key figures on the front page of an online portal.

Reform UK, who did not even mention sewage in their manifesto, have recently made the unfunded commitment to nationalise the water industry that could cost taxpayers more than £100 billion over many years of distracting disruption.

In contrast, the Labour Government’s Plan for Change is delivering with tougher regulation and enforcement action, together with a record £104 billion of private investment over the next five years, to reduce sewage discharges to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas for good.

Peter Lamb, Member of Parliament for Crawley said:

“Cleaning up our rivers, lakes and seas after 14 years of shameful Conservative failure is essential to this Labour Government’s Plan for Change.

“The shambles of Southern Water and Thames Water giving their top executives bonus, while both are struggling to clean up our water ways and continuing to pump sewage is disgraceful.

“Water company bosses, just like anyone else, should only get bonuses for good performance, certainly not if they’ve failed to tackle water pollution.

“That’s why Labour is banning undeserved bonuses with immediate effect delivering on the promise we made at the General Election.”