Speeches by Pakes.

“With respect, the frustration is that you describe it like you are being successful on this, but you are taking record levels out in bonuses. In 2022, your total package went up 11%, which I imagine is more than what your staff got in a pay deal, unless I am wrong. I imagine not many people were getting 11% at that poi…”

“The total package was 11%, including the bonus increase.”

“I have a couple of questions for you. I might pass the baton back to our Welsh colleague as well at some point, so be nice to him. Thank you for the candour and the level of detail you have given us. I am going to ask you a couple of things and hope to get the same level of candour in terms of the challenges you are fa…”

“Welsh Water was penalised under the ODI, the outcome delivery incentive. I have trouble saying it so I had to write it down because I always want to say ODA, which would be a different thing for you. In terms of the outcome delivery incentive leading to a loss in revenues and contributing to a negative return on some o…”

“Forgive me, I represent a Midlands seat in England. Do Natural Resource Wales and the Welsh Government give you a greater level of scrutiny than perhaps companies this side of the border would face?”

“I am really interested in that because we often have conversations about how we get more granular scrutiny. In Anglian Water, which is my area, we do not have a similar devolved structure, and we should not because we do not have the identity that Wales has to do that. I have another question around Moody’s and its dow…”

“I think it is clarity between Moody’s resighting for the final price determination versus the previous draft.”

“Just one quick, hot pursuit because I heard some things in your answer that are actually different words than colleagues in other water companies have said about the structure of the bonus, the low start, in effect base-load package. Would you be in a position to write to us and explain what the structure of that model…”

“Chair, it might be useful to understand what best practice would be in a remuneration model.”

“I will try to be brief and mindful of time. I hope you can understand why we are asking these questions around environmental performance and financial performance. These are big issues for our constituents and the public, rightly so, and it does sometimes feel like these discussions are a bit like play your cards right…”

“So it is long-term regulated as opposed to in-year performance? Your answer in a slightly less gameshow, more “Yes, Minister,” way of answering was that it is regulated, therefore that does not matter.”

“At what point would your environmental performance matter in terms of the dividends you are paying?”

“How does that relate then? What is the direct link in that answer to hundreds of thousands of litres of raw sewage being pumped out? Is the direct link that the performance measure is so low that it does not matter, or is it that the direct link is not direct?”

“Let us be really specific. We have all talked about really significant sums of raw sewage. We can say that is part of a basket of environmental measures. Does the amount of raw sewage that gets pumped out by yourselves as a company have a direct link to how you pay dividends?”

“Do you understand why people are really angry in this country at big profitable companies such as yourselves taking out huge dividends that can then sit here and just say no to something of national significance?”

“I do think complex organisations like yourselves can look at more than one metric at one time, so let me rephrase. Personally, as chief executive, from this day onward, now that you have said it has been recognised, do you believe the amount of sewage that you put out should be factored into dividends and your executiv…”

“So why was it not included to this point?”

“In November 2024, it was reported that Northumbrian Water executives received £315,000 in bonuses despite sitting on Ofwat’s elevated concern watch list. Is that right?”

“But not linked to the amount of sewage you are pumping out?”

“Moving aside from the independent committee, you are personally comfortable with having criteria for a bonus that will be quite literally more than most people in this country earn in a year. You are comfortable with that not having any performance-related element around the amount of sewage you are pumping out.”