Severn Trent boss, Liv Garfield, has been awarded almost £13m in the last four years, earning £3.2m last year alone despite being in charge of a company that was responsible for over 60,000 separate sewage spills in 2023.
Despite this massive pay packet, Liv Garfield defended her wage and argued that the water companies require more money to improve their infrastructure to cope with rising demand. They plan to do this by raising customers' bills by up to 44% in the next five years, irrespective of the huge bonuses and shareholder dividends Severn Trent currently pays out. The company also made higher profits than usual last year, in a year that saw unprecedented spills.
"We have improved river health and made major progress in reducing spills over the last four years," she said.
"We've had not a great year in the last 12 months, we accept that, but if you've looked at that four-year period over time, we have made dramatic, dramatic progress."
As anglers, we see our waterways being abused by the people in charge of keeping them safe and clean, and despite rising bills, pollution incidents are becoming more frequent, with multiple daily spills of raw sewage not uncommon without any meaningful change on the horizon.
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