The committee also heard on Wednesday from the country’s highest-paid water CEO, Liv Garfield, who told MPs she was “absolutely gutted” at a rise in pollution last year from her company, Severn Trent water.
Garfield was last year awarded a £3.2m pay deal, including a £584,000 bonus, despite the company being fined £2m for spilling 260m litres of sewage into the River Trent.
The chief executive of United Utilities defended her £1.4m pay packet, including a £420k bonus, despite the company behind historic spills in Lake Windermere having been found to have polluted more than any other in 2023.
The latest available government data found United Utilities to have polluted more than any other water firm in 2023, pouring 3.6m hours into England’s rivers over the course of the year.
Garfield told the committee: “I am committed to get to zero dry-day spills.” She said the company would be doing “a gazillion times better” by this time next year.
