Thames Water has come under fire after revealing it paid more than £4 million in bonuses to its top officers and increased chief executive Chris Weston's pay to £1.16 million, a 9.4 per cent rise, despite the utility's poor record on leaks, sewage pollution and reliability. The disclosure is politically damaging, arriving just as Andy Burnham takes over in No 10 having pledged some form of state or community ownership of water companies, with critics arguing the payouts strengthen the case for nationalisation.

Thames Water, which serves 16 million customers across London and the Thames Valley, carries £18.5 billion of debt and was fined a record £122.7 million last year for pumping raw sewage into the river and mismanaging its finances; it also raised bills by 40 per cent. A "chief restructuring officer" was separately paid £2.2 million. Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds condemned the pay awards as "outrageous" and said the government has banned bonuses for polluting water bosses and will act to stop bonuses "by any other name", while the article's author argues profits should instead go towards paying down the firm's debt.