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WHAT DO you think Thames Water – which supplies most of East London – is spending your money on. The UK is heading for its fifth heatwave and drought: surely it’s maintenance and investment to stop leaks? No.
The BBC has reported that Thames Water has just paid its Finance Chief a £1 million – yes, £1 million – signing on fee (this is in addition to his salary). Apparently Steve Buck, the said Finance Officer, actually signed on in April last year, but the payment was made last month, July 2026.
The BBC acknowledges that the payment came to light when Sir Adrian Montague, Chair of the Thames Water Board, wrote to MPs who are members of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee – and was initially reported by Sky News. Sir Adrian admitted, in the letter, that customers might find that payment “unjust”. However, he tried to justify this on the basis that this is what companies have to spend out to attract “talented and experienced individuals”.
Sir Adrian need not have worried. There will be several people in Tower Hamlets who would be glad to work for Thames Water for even half that sum.
Steve Buck has been Thames Water’s Finance Officer for 15 months. Thames Water currently has debts of, approximately, £20 billion. This level of debt will not be Mr Buck’s fault. Finance Officers have to count the money and advise the Board, but debt is accrued by officers carrying out the service practically – not finance officers. Maybe Sir Adrian needs to pay his service officers more. No: we take that back. Apparently Chief Executive Chris Weston is already on a salary of £1.63million, and a staggering £4.1million was paid out to directors in bonuses last year. (What is the bonus for? It cannot be performance-related.)
The future of Thames Water remains uncertain. It has not yet come up with a deal which could allow it to avoid bankruptcy and satisfies the Government at the same time. The Government is reported to be considering putting Thames Water into special measures – a sort of temporary re-nationalisation. Neither of these are long term solutions. In the longer term, right wing politicians are suggesting that Thames Water should be sold to another private company (really? Who would have them?), while left wingers are suggesting that the Government should just re-nationalise the company.
Either way, the cost of Thames Water and, despite that, the shoddy service shows that Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s boast the privatisation makes services better and cheaper was a load of old nonsense.
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