Nick Robinson grills Ofwat CEO over bonus payouts to water company executives | The Today Programme
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- Опубліковано 14 жов 2024
- Water bills in England and Wales are set to rise by an average £94 over the next five years, the water regulator Ofwat has said.
But who will pay for executive bonuses?
Ofwat CEO David Black tells #R4Today and Nick Robinson the organisation's 'focus is on protecting customer interests'.
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#Ofwat #Politics #Water
Nick Robinson grills Ofwat CEO over bonus payouts to water company executives | The Today Programme
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You are not protecting the customer, really what a load of rubbish all these useless watchdogs need disbanding
OFGEM, OFWAT....should OFFUK
Edit. It feels more like they are in place to protect profits for the shareholders, than looking out for the consumer.
Water utilities should all be nationalised as a matter of priority.
Yes, absolutely!
Same goes for energy and rail. Make no mistake about it these corporations are nothing but the mafia in suits.
@@kinggeoffrey3801 and dont forget who sold them all off and allowed this... the tories!
@@kanedNunable I haven’t forgotten what Thatcher did. The BBC doesn't like facts though hence my post being deleted.
i don't think any industry that it a monopoly should be sold off - it's not like we can shop around for water. It's the same for trains - there's not a choice on any given line for which train company you go with. thanks goodness they can be brought back into public ownership as the franchises expire
Toothless regulator trying to hide its empty gums, a waste of time and money if they cannot or will not make the water companys do what they are over paid to do.
Why are you only now introducing these rules around executive pay? What have you been doing for the last 15 years? Completely in the pocket of big business - corporate capture at its finest.
It may involve Tories
Regulators act on the authority the government of the day hives them. All civil servants rarr responsible to government not parliament. Then ask who has been in government the last 14 years.
Because, the English voted Tory. Same reason for most missteps in the last 50 years. The rest of the UK has been warning them for decades, to deaf ears
The British Public have ALREADY PAID ONCE, why should we be forced to PAY AGAIN?
This git from Ofwat should be sacked immediately
Yeah, it's all a joke for him.
Exactly. What is he being paid?
Why are the English still ok with this? We in Scotland pay for our water in our council tax and we don't have meters. Absolutely mad. You're actually paying for the water from the tap. Why aren't you rioting?
Well said
Could you imagine the french standing for this
ignorance and stupidity.
@@bigkdog5091 we're not ok with it!
@SkeletonDrums1 I know mate. My comment was a bit simplistic but this really is scandalous. And now the water companies want to put your bills up to pay for the repairs that are required. That's just cruel. Labour are at least putting the brakes on that but this really has to be front page news. Absolutely scandalous
PRIVATISATION A FAILED POLOTICAL DOGMA.ROYAL MAIL NEXT😮
Yes. Privatisation: the god that failed.
OFWAT …. Clearly missing a letter
Pay it back Thatcher is to blame
Thatcher's gone since eons.
This is now, so who's to blame.
For sure , it started there !
@@Mar-enfrance Tories to blame for 14 years of running the country into the ground while filling their pockets with £££££
@@Mar-enfranceshe did it
Jail the CEOs of the water companies
That's outside of ofwats power. It would be for the government of the day to give them such powers and even then they wouldn't be able to jail CEOs. That's not how jusiltice works
Its so laughable and would be criminal if it wasn't true. What I wonder did the executives spend their money on? This country is all about giving money to the aready well off but leave those who pay enormous water bills to fend for themselves. The executives should be made to return their bonus's in return for us not tipping their effluent all over their well manicured estates.
imagine getting a huge bonus for absolutely failing....
Sounds like most of our major companies including MPs
Close down OFWAT. They are utterly useless.
They need more powers that torries has taken away, not closing down. You are like that woke crowd who thinks that defunding police would solve the crime
@@Speedkam No we need an entirely different organisation. The body needs a reform of its workings. It’s not just a simple matter of giving them more powers. Almost everything about it needs to change.
England's water companies are in a complete mess (of their own making due to greed and lax regulation). Labour are going to regulate properly, hopefully the companies will either run themselves properly or go bust. Either way the UK government must NOT take on their debts. Their execs/shareholders/lenders should bear this risk/cost, NOT the taxpayer. This of course means no immediate privatisation. We CANNOT have another 2008....
Absolutely needs to be managed to include repayment of grants with no shareholders benefiting from any further dividends until all debts are cleared.
Labour will be no different
@@paulwainwright6903 Wrong, see the water special measures bill announced in the King's speech.
@@thepoliticalhousethatjackbuilt you believe anything that they say ? Very little will happen you watch .
@@paulwainwright6903 No I don't believe anything "they" say, but then neither am I a cynic, things are rarely good or bad, right or wrong; In reality they will inevitability gets some things wrong, but I believe they will mostly get it right and that is all we can reasonably ask.
The fact it has only been 2 weeks since the new Government was been elected and you've already decided, tells me that you are just a right wing Tory (or worse) and that you are simply chucking mud at them regardless in the hope some sticks.
Disgusting!
Ofwat is useless, It needs to be gone, or the rules of how it does things completely rewritten, so it actually has teeth and doesn't lick the arses of the water companies!
How can you pay out a bonus or a dividend to anybody if you are millions in debt
16 billion in debt for Thames Water
@@SNORKYMEDIA thanks I didn't realise it was so much
Margaret Hilda Thatcher has a lot to answer for
Bet the people moaning all voted for her government at the time, short memories when it comes to paying out
The companies that used to be on your side (bank, insurance, utilities etc.) have made themselves the enemy.
They were never on our side.
when were banks & insurance companies on our side? sure, utilities were owned by us once until tories sold them all off.
So Thames Water's investors can pay the CEO's £200k QUARTERLY bonus. And Thames can pay them back by paying a dividend. And the head of OFWAT hasn't worked that out yet?
We need lay people on the boards of all public regulators in order to stop this clear misuse of OUR money.
The general public of this country used to own all the utilities, trains etc., until Thatcher decided to sell everything off, this is the mess now
As we know the cost of living crisis is down to one thing and one thing alone, corporate greed, they all looked at the situation and are still taking advantage, absolutely disgusting they are allowed to mug us off.
Why not fire Ofwat and replace it with a proper regulator.
All water companies are FOREIGN owned,............their profits go abroad to offset costs THAT ARE NOT ALLOWED IN THEIR OWN COUNTRIES................where those governments impose strict rules on ANY higher prices for ANY utility company.
SO, once again, poor old UK customers ARE BEING FORCED TO MAKE UP THE LOST PROFITS OF THE FOREIGNERS..............whilst the same foreign owned companies can & do flood this country with their FILTHY CONTAMINATED WATER, which we have to pay for......
Can only happen in the UK.....
Scottish Water.
#,IndependenceisNormal
🏴🏴🏴
The Post Office horizon Inquiry has shown us that the layer upon layer of management or bureaucracy does nothing but add incompetence and unfairness to any institution or business. Time to hold all senior management in essential services to account for their performance and the public decide that level not a government minister or a pay review body.
Chris Weston was at British Gas Services about 10 years ago.
I can only remember him telling us the situation where when he was in then army, a squaddie slept under a tank to keep out of the rain in a desert.
The sand shifted and the guy was slowly crushed to death and his every death throw could be heard.
He wasn’t at BGS very long but he moved on to another company and then picked up more unjustified bonuses.
It looks like there is a merry go round of money amongst businesses who give and get huge bonuses without actually making any difference to the profits or viability of these companies.
He has been in his current roll 3 months and is getting £175K in his back pocket.
For instance in Germany you must be with a company for 3 years before any bonus can be paid, this whole merry go round of money tree for directors of companies in the U.K. needs to be investigated, now.
The other thing that happened in BGS was that these bonuses were pumped into company pension schemes to avoid paying tax on them.
These people are carried on the backs of the workers at the coal face then they, not the actual workers making the profits get lottery win bonuses, it has to stop, now…….
How about only pay bonuses when river and sea discharges reduce DRASTICALLY?
Ofwat are in the pocket of the water company’s it’s that simple.
The CEO came across as weak, very weak
These people get called maggots and such, but maggots are actually quite noble in comparison.
He should have asked where the income comes from to pay bonuses? I fully agree if you pollute rivers and beaches you shouldn’t get a bonus and shareholders shouldn’t receive dividends. If customers had a real choice all of these companies would have gone bankrupt years ago. If water companies want to increase their prices they should reduce bonuses and dividends as well so that everyone receives equal pain.
Theft
Hit the nail on the head, its simply legalised theft.
watch him become a board member of a water company in a few years time.
I worked for AW for fifteen years and in that time Ofwat was always run by an ex water company man and was always in the pocket of the. Water companies.
the dude is eve smirking, thinking he is so clever and we don't understand he is trying to trick us
The water companies when first privatised had no incumbent debt. In the intervening years the water companies have taken on huge debt, far beyond what they have paid in infrastructure investment to pay enormous shareholder dividends, and now when they can't pay the interest on that debt, they want customers to pay it, with no increase in service provision.
The simple answer is that Ofwat should not allow any shareholder dividend payments until the capital debt has been repaid in full.
Stop executive bonuses completely. The bonus culture corrupts - look at the Post Office. Most workers do NOT get bonuses for doing their jobs.
AI is getting so sophisticated these days. This guy is an absolute robot
Price hikes, and no guarantee of any remedial work been done. Can you hear the shareholders laughing?
Thames Water is an equity investment company scam. It is equally criminal that Ofwat have enable this. All the water companies need to be nationalised (without compensation) and money will then be saved by scrapping Ofwat, as well.
The UK needs to start hiring good people in important roles instead of drips like this
Ofwat is missing a t
Name one privatised industry that has been a success for both its customers and it's workers?
I'm a Brit living in Austria. What annoys me I have family and friends on the island (including grandchildren) who these have screwed the rivers and sea in and around my homeland putting them in danger from ALLOWING pollution. Plus ALL who are involved in ANY way in the water industry have children and/or grandchildren and if they don't care about the HEALTH of their own family.... THEY SURE AREN'T GOING TO WORRY ABOUT YOURS.
No utility company should have shareholders or be paying bonuses. Salaried managers only. Better still, nationalise the lot of them. As for protecting the customers, how he can say that with a straight face is incredible.
The revolving door of Ofwat Managers leaving to join water companies can't help - if that was stopped perhaps they'd be more inclined to do a better job of holding water companies to account
If he plays his cards right he can end up as the CEO of one of the water companies and earn a huge bonus that is not paid for by the customers.
You have the tories to thank for this.
Public ownership comes with problems which need dealing with, but private ownership simply doesn’t work.
This man one of them who sharing money with big companies and bankers 😡😡😡😡😡
So you have a regulatory authority who are supposed to ensure water companies do the right thing, but they don't have the power to do that, who gives them the power? The government, maybe some of the Tory MPs family and friends have shares in these companies, so why would you impose regulations on a company that could affect the amount of dividends you receive
Nothing this man says is convincing. Why ARE bonuses being paid? Why was the money offered BEFORE the CEO fulfilled his commitments? This is beyond scandalous. I hope there is nationwide uproar if Thames water passes on their failure to their customers.
So Bills -> Profits -> dividends to shareholders -> bonuses for executives. It's still the customer paying!
Thatcher privatised so much. How did it end up? Rail, Utilities, Steel, BT... Great success or what?
That guy really is waffling big time.
are you protecting from higher bills, nope, I live in the Rep of Ireland, don't pay for water, its nationalised.
They should be called Ofwhatdowedoallday. This guy is as much use as a chocolate teapot!
This guy needs sacking. He is in cahoots with the water bosses and not protecting the consumers interests.
It’s utterly disgusting these bonuses should be with immediate effect recovered and as regards to the persons who got this money P45d
GREED KNOWS NO BOUNDS. What have we done??????????????????????????????????????????
Water company's are doing great....they take are money, chuck it all in the River and ocean...and go down the pub....
This regulator needs scrapping and a total refresh. Totally useless.
OFWAT is pathetic the owners have been allowed to pay out so much in Dividends and the companies are geared to the roof now and they have done bugger all to stop it.
Sorry guys but how many people were convinced by Maggie the milk snatcher,that privatisation was a brilliant idea. Name me one industry it's worked in . That would be fat round ZERO.👿👿👿👿👿
Are Ofwat and Environment Agency staff ex-water company employees? A hideous roundabout?
Ummmmmmmmmm, does offwat ceo work for Thames water🤨 …….. NO teeth and will probably disappear into the mists of time
The Ofwat CEO, David Black looks distinctly uncomfortable at the line of questioning being pursued by Nick Robinson.
I wonder whether he suspects that the days of a revolving door between jobs in Ofwat and subsequent lucrative jobs in the water companies are over?
So the shareholders have to pay the bonuses, so they then invest less in the water company and the tax payer has to pay more to fix the broken water system. Errrm, does that not mean we pay in the end….did I miss something?
The smirk on his face says it all. And that’s the regulator!
Part of a new water pipeline that links areas in the east midlands has tapped into our local artesian water supply that served just our local area. It goes across local fields and the installation of a 12" diameter pipe has smashed field drains which now have to be repaired before the winter to prevent catastrophic flooding. Our affected farmer has had to cut down large areas of standing crop in order for this to go ahead. Bonuses paid for this?
Utter f up dear lord ...
CRIMINAL! When will these thieves be called to account? Ofwat needs to be scrapped and a new regulator with teeth, put in it's place. Ofwat also needs to be investigated for their complete incompetence. Why is it that the law never applies to those in positions of power and we wonder why lawlessness and respect for the law is at an all time low!
How much is the taxpayer paying as salary to the CEO of OFWAT for doing a 💩 job. A Kiwi that has worked there since 2012 climbing up the greasy pole presiding over failure.
Corruption means rewards for failure.
As Mrs Sloacombe would say “Weak as water”…. OFFWAT should all be removed!!
Breathtaking complacency from OFWAT CEO, “our focus is on protecting customers interests” and yet, sewage pouring into waterways and into the sea is not in customers interests?
Get rid of Ofwat, waste of space
What is this Ofwat CEOs salary and bonus scheme? Because whatever it is, that also seems to be a cost to the tax-payer with no benefits associated.
Good to see the BBC asking the awkward questions.
England should take the water industry into public ownership like they did in Scotland.
The Ofwat guy is talking shite. Why would investors pay for the bonus? How would Ofwat know where the money for the bonus has even come from. Clever accounting could probably make it look like it came from any revenue stream. It's a fundamental public service. There should be no bonuses.
Disgaceful
Get all our utilities back in public hands. End of……
CEO's of utility companies should not get a bonus if they do not do the job properly. If I f***ed up as an employee, the way they do, I would not have been an employee for very long.
So if customers don't pay the bonus where does the money come from? Do they have another money tree we don't know about.
Water should be free.
Same with food.
Surely both are a basic Human right!
Ofwat are in the water companies pockets... pure and simple
Sack the water bosses and OFWAT.
Water is a MUST for everyone it should never be for profit and should be run by the national
If the Bonuses are not paid, from customers monies, where does it come from ?
It’s time the massive water companies start to pay the CRT and inland water ways who look after our waterways as the take from our water systems
Privatisation has not worked for the water industry. How can people be rewarded for failure ? Why are bills rising when the services are diminishing ? What has the bill payers money been used for ? Why only now do they speak of investment in the water infrastructure? Shocking abuse of a monopoly business position. After all, its the only business that gets its raw material for FREE !!
Regulators do absolutely nothing until they are called out. Never on the front foot
If everyone simply withheld their water payment (I mean EVERYONE) something would change. The same goes with fuel at the forecourt. Over inflated house prices/rents etc. We have it in our hands to change Thatchers greed.
Scottish Water is still owned by the public. Not saying everything is perfect but we pay a lot less and there are no bonus scandals. Nobody in Scotland even discusses water issues (except the stuff hitting us on the head). Thatcher tried to sell it off but we were not having it.
These people think we are fools.
Be interesting to find out where this bonus money comes from if not from customers. What other source of income do they have?
This is just despicable these company's should be left to sort themselves out and not turn back on there customers all the time
I sometimes wonder if the water company directors ok the Ofwat directors bonuses, and vice versa.
He was talkingtotal bollocks.
Yes, change the rules now only because a new Labour government is in power and sitting twiddling your thumbs for fifteen years is no longer an option, don't slam the door on you're way to the job centre, thank you.