One of Britain’s most polluting water companies has increased its payouts to shareholders by nearly 10% in the same week that it emerged it had pumped raw sewage into Windermere in the Lake District for 10 hours.
United Utilities will pay its investors – which include some of the world’s biggest asset managers – £339m in dividends for this year, up from £310m for 2023, after it reported higher operating profits thanks to a rise in customer bills.
