Yorkshire Water boss criticised for £1.3m pay packet
The chief executive of Yorkshire Water earned £1.3m 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 Richard Flint, the CEO of the private water company, received £1.3m during 2017 and £5.9m over the last 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. 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.
In the most recent publicly available results, Yorkshire water reported revenues of £985m in the financial year to March 31 2017 but pre-tax losses of £367m. Meanwhile, consumer water bills in England and Wales have increased by 40% above inflation since privatisation in 1989, according to a report by the National Audit Office.
A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said: “Our directors salaries are set by an independent remuneration committee and are comparable within the industry. We believe we have a remuneration policy that will enable us to continue to attract people with the necessary skills and experience to manage a business of the size and complexity of Yorkshire Water.
“We follow the principal that remuneration packages should reflect an individual’s overall contribution to the business and therefore a significant proportion of directors’ remuneration packages are performance–related through annual and long-term incentive plans. In the current five-year Asset Management Period (2015-2020) we will be investing £3.8bn to improve the services we provide our customers.”
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 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.”
