Polly has welcomed the government’s announcement that Southern Water is one of six failing water companies who are being banned from paying their bosses bonuses, with immediate effect.

She said she had been campaigning on the issue since before the general election, because for too long Southern Water bosses had been “failing upwards” despite the ongoing sewage scandal, rocketing customer bills, and poor management.

She said the scandalous behaviour of water companies was something that constituents raised with her regularly on the doorstep and in her inbox, and that she shared their fury over the issue.

The action by the water regulator to block bonuses was made possible by Labour’s new Water (Special Measures) Act, which came into force today (6 June) and which allows tough action to be taken against water companies that fail to deliver against strict performance targets.

Water companies in the UK have awarded over £112 million in bonuses and incentives over the last decade. Last year alone, £7.6 million in bonuses were paid to water bosses in England. Despite these eyewatering payouts, in 2024 water companies released raw sewage into England’s rivers and seas for a record 3.61 million hours – a grim new record.

Southern Water has long been one of the UK’s worst performing water companies. In 2021 the company received a record £90 million fine after pleading guilty to thousands of illegal sewage discharges which polluted rivers and the sea in Kent, Hampshire, and Sussex. The offences were found to be caused by deliberate failings, causing major harm to protected areas, conservation sites, and oyster beds.

During the trial, the court were told Southern Water deliberately presented a misleading picture of compliance to the Environment Agency, with the judge saying that Southern Water had shown “a shocking and wholesale disregard for the environment, for the precious and delicate ecosystems along the North Kent and Solent coastlines, for human health, and for the fisheries and other legitimate businesses that depend on the vitality of the coastal waters.”

Yet despite the record fine, that year CEO Lawrence Gosden received a bonus of £183,600, as part of a total pay package of £764,000, up from £428,000 the previous year.

Southern Water hiked customer bills by an average of 47% on 1 April 2025, prompting Polly Billington MP to call for Mr Gosden to donate last year’s bonus to an ocean protection charity.

Reacting to today’s announcement, Polly said:

“I’ve been campaigning for months for strong action to curtail these outrageous payouts for failure at Southern Water. It’s a disgrace that executives have been paid hundreds of thousands of pounds in bonuses in recent years despite soaring customer bills, a failure to invest in vital infrastructure, and huge fines for illegal sewage dumping.

 

“Today, this shocking gravy train comes to end, with the welcome news that until such time as Southern Water can demonstrate it is delivering for customers and the environment, its bosses will not be receiving a penny in bonuses. While the last government sat on its hands, this Labour government is standing up for billpayers and finally holding failing water companies like Southern Water to account.”