Should the bosses of water and energy companies have their pay capped?
UK water and energy bosses face no legal cap on pay. Since the Water (Special Measures) Act 2025, Ofwat can ban performance-related bonuses at water firms that fail on pollution, customer service or finances. In 2025 this blocked more than £4m in bonuses across six companies. Energy firms have no equivalent rule, and Centrica's chief executive received £4.3m in one recent year. In August 2026 Wessex Water defended an £80,000 pay rise for its chief executive.
4 Opinions
Private companies can do as they wish, as long as everyone pays the correct taxes. Public companies are accountable to their boards. Restrict the pay; you diminish the tax. If that system isn't working in some sectors, there must be better ways to ensure accountability than always focusing on money. It is, literally, the Politics of Envy. One of the people I invited to this platform is deeply into this. I'll be interested to see if we agree.
I voted yes due to the awful state of our water companies. I'm not opposed to leaders being well paid, but with water, it should be linked to how well the utility is serving the public, not how much profit it's making the shareholders.
It's wrong to have huge bonuses and dividends paid out when our water still needs putting right. Fining won't help either. That money, I feel would be better spent upgrading and fixing all the sewage treatment, leaks, water contamination and so on, that we have, which the public are paying money to have done.
These companies are essentially monopolies in a skewed market, strict controls need to be applied to prevent ripping off of consumers, including salaries and share dividends not backed by performance.