North West water boss comes under fire for his £2.3m pay packet
The boss of North West water company United Utilities earned £2.3m last year through his salary, bonuses, pensions and other benefits.
Figures from a joint investigation into company accounts by union GMB and Corporate Watch show that CEO Steve Mogford received £2.3m during 2017, and £12m over the past five years.
They have been released today as GMB, the union for the water industry, launches it’s ‘Take Back The Tap’ campaign to bring England’s privatised water industry back into public ownership.
Steve Mogford
The figures show that through a combination of salary, bonuses, pensions and other benefits that the average package for a privatised water company in 2017 was £1.2m.
A spokesperson for United Utilities said: “The vast majority of Steve Mogford’s remuneration is linked to the delivery of stretching targets aimed at further improving customer service, operation delivery and environmental performance. In 2017, his total remuneration was approximately half the average for a FTSE 100 CEO.”
Last month, United Utilities (UU) reported increased revenues for the year to March 31, but saw pre-tax profits slip compared with the previous year.
The Warrington-based operation reported turnover of £1.736bn, compared with £1.7bn for 2017.
Reported profit before tax was £432m, £10m lower than last year, partially affected by a £22m profit on the disposal of its non-household business the year before.
Tim Roache, GMB general secretary, said: “It is a national scandal over the last five years England’s hard-pressed water customers have been forced to splash out millions through their bills to go into the pockets of just nine individuals.
“Privatisation of the water industry has been a costly mistake and these eye-watering sums are further proof the water industry must be returned to public hands.”
Responding to the GMB’s ‘Take Back the Tap’ campaign, Water UK chief executive, Michael Roberts said: “Water companies have invested around £150bn on improvements and infrastructure in the last 30 years, and continue to spend £8bn a year to keep on improving.
“Thanks to this large investment, we’ve seen leakage reduced, drinking water quality improved, a better environment, and bills are roughly where they were 20 years ago – about £1 a day – and people need to ask themselves whether a water industry owned and run by the government would invest the same money and deliver the same good results for customers.”
Environment Secretary Michael Gove has also criticised the water companies for paying their bosses large salaries and huge dividends to shareholders.
He said: “One might hope that companies making such massive profits, paying out such big dividends and supporting such generous executive salaries, would be big contributors to the exchequer through their tax bill.
“But instead we have had 10 years of shareholders getting millions, the chief executive getting hundreds of thousands, and the public purse getting nothing.”
