‘Outwitted’: have water companies managed to sidestep Labour’s bonus ban?

Under the 2025 act, the government banned six water firms including Thames from awarding bonuses for this financial year after seven big pollution incidents. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

It started before the election. Against a background of growing fury about the conduct of the water companies, Labour promised to end the injustice of their executives getting bonuses while sewage was dumped in England’s rivers and seas.

In March 2024, Steve Reed, the then shadow environment secretary, said: “Since the last election the water bosses have paid themselves £25m in bonuses. Labour will ban the payment of bonuses to polluting water bosses until they have cleaned up their filth.”