Southern Water boss's £500k bonus criticised by MP

Ian McAulay requested a two-year pay freeze and a reduced bonus but still received more than £1m in total

An MP has labelled a £550,900 bonus for the chief executive of Southern Water "ridiculous" after the firm was fined for dumping raw sewage into the sea.

With his base salary, pension and other benefits, Ian McAulay's total remuneration was more than £1m.

A company spokesman said he was "the lowest paid of water utility bosses".

Ashford MP Damian Green said he was very "angry" and added: "Getting a bonus when your company is being fined £90m is ridiculous."

The salary figures, published in Southern Water's Annual Report, come as the firm was fined £90m for deliberately dumping billions of litres of sewage.

Labour campaigner Charlotte Cornell said: "Huge bonuses like this just don't belong in water.

"Water should be a publicly-owned amenity, I do not believe drinking water or waste water should be provided by private companies."

Southern Water said there had been "profound changes" since Mr McAulay became CEO in 2017 and began "driving the transformation in people, processes and systems".

The firm also added the chief executive was under a two-year pay freeze and bonus reduction, following his own request.

Southern Water said it monitors 98% of wastewater outfalls, so knows better than any other company when something goes wrong

Southern Water now claims to be "the most transparent company" in the sector for self-reporting discharge incidents to regulators, and its rating has improved from one star to two, out of four.

However, it was the second-worst performing company for pollution incidents in 2020, with almost four times more incidents than Anglian.

During court proceedings earlier this month, the company admitted 6,971 illegal spills from 17 sites in Hampshire, Kent and West Sussex between 2010 and 2015.

The firm said it was "spending heavily to improve environmental performance", has appointed a new director of environment and plans to reduce pollution incidents to zero by 2030.

Sebastiaan Boelen, Southern's chief financial officer, was also awarded a bonus of £290,000 and a total pay packet of £650,000.