In yesterday’s post “Sewage: you should take personal responsibility”, Radio Exe claimed that Susan Davy received a bonus of more than £370,000, on top of her £475,000 base salary.
As previously reported by Owl, The Times quoted a substantially higher bonus figure of £1.2 million:
Water bosses’ pay and bonuses in 2020-21 from www.thetimes.co.uk
• Susan Davy, chief executive of Pennon, the parent company of South West Water, was paid £1.7 million, including £1.2 million in bonuses
• Steve Mogford, the chief executive of United Utilities, was paid £2.9 million, including £2 million in bonuses.
• Liv Garfield, the chief executive of Severn Trent Water, was paid £2.8 million, including £1.9 million in bonuses
• Sarah Bentley, the chief executive of Thames Water, was paid £1.2 million, including a £273,000 bonus.
• Ian McAulay, the chief executive of Southern Water, was paid £1 million, including £550,000 in bonuses.
East Devon Watch 
The dividends and increased salaries paid to executives undoubtedly amount to more than the (Tory) government raised when their dogma and short-term thinking led them to privatise the water industry, and they would still have owned the assets. Lax regulation is also inevitable with privatisations because investors don’t want to buy a company that is heavily regulated.
The dividends and increased salaries are effectively a diversion of funds from infrastructure investment. There is a clear and direct correlation between the parlous state of the water infrastructure and the privatisation of the water industry by a Tory government.
It is time that the idea that privatisations are ever a good idea. Once again I challenge anyone to provide a single example of a privatisation that has been a net benefit to the public?
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