Call for water company boss bonus ban while leaks continue

The party said people in Sussex are “suffering” with hosepipe bans while water company bosses still get bonuses “despite not even bothering to fix leaks”.

Parliamentary candidate for Lewes James MacCleary called for the government to ban bosses from receiving bonuses.

He said a recent sinkhole in Crouch Lane, Seaford, “highlights failing infrastructure” from the private companies who manage the county’s water.

A sinkhole in Crouch Lane, Seaford, last week. Picture by Nick Meldrum

South East Water and Southern Water both said executives “must meet stringent performance targets” to receive bonuses.

James MacCleary said: “As the ground opened up in Seaford, rats came scurrying out, water flowed out, and the appalling state of our water infrastructure was incredibly apparent.

"This is wasteful and frankly not good enough. We have to invest in fixing it, to avoid big costs and repairs in the future.

“It is outrageous that while thousands of people in Sussex suffer from hosepipe bans, water company bosses reward themselves with these bonuses despite not even bothering to fix leaks. 

James MacCleary with Lib Dem leader Ed Davey in Seaford last month

Southern Water bosses received £1,719,500 in bonuses in the last two years, according to Companies House records provided to The Argus by the Lib Dems.

South East Water executives were awarded £645,823 in the same period.

Britain's water providers lost more than two billion litres of water daily through leaks in the year to March 2021, according to Environment Agency data.

A pipe in West Beach, Lancing, which has burst six times in a year. It last burst in July

The report added: “Although leaked water eventually returns to the natural environment, it adds to abstraction pressures and wastes the energy used in treating and cleaning it.”

Residents in Woodingdean were left without running water for almost 24 hours from Monday until noon yesterday.

A Southern Water spokesman said: “Executive pay and bonuses are transparently disclosed in our annual report and executives must meet stringent targets to receive bonus payments.

Residents in Woodingdean were left with a trickle of water yesterday

“We fixed 22,000 leaks last year and have installed 7,000 acoustic loggers across our 15,000km of network, which can detect and pinpoint leaks before they become bursts – even in deeply buried trunk mains in rural areas where no evidence shows on the surface.”

South East Water apologised about the pipe in Crouch Lane, adding that it was repaired one day after it burst and it is working on back-filling the sinkhole.

A spokesman said: “South East Water’s annual report has details of its executive pay and bonuses and to receive bonus payments executives must meet stringent performance targets.

“As a consequence of very dry ground conditions and the resulting earth movement, we have seen a 50 per cent increase in bursts along our 9,000 miles of mains running deep underground below roads, motorways, railway lines, fields and rivers.

The sinkhole in Seaford at the weekend after the pipe was repaired

"This network of pipes, laid end to end, would stretch from England to Australia.

“The repair of all leaks and burst water pipes are being prioritised based on the impact to customers and the amount of water that is being wasted. We work with the highways authorities and other utilities to try and minimise disruption and congestion which roadworks can cause while repairs are being carried out.

“Water is dense and to transport it successfully to homes and businesses we have to operate the system under immense pressure so some leakage is inevitable.

Firefighters draining the sinkhole in Crouch Lane, Seaford

"Tackling leaks is a long-term challenge and one that the industry has been making good progress on.

“In our supply area before the heatwave arrived we were at an all-time low, having cut down on the number of leaks across our region meeting the target set by our regulator for the last 13 years in a row.

"Despite this, we’re increasing the resources available to tackle leaks and are expanding our leakage team by 20 per cent.”