Flood of complaints fail to sink pay rise for boss of water giant

tHe chief executive of the uK’s biggest water suppler to business has landed a big pay rise despite soaring customer complaints.

Water Plus, which is a joint venture between Ftse 100 firms united utilities and severn trent, provides billing and metering services for supermarkets, petrol stations and other retailers.

In its recently-published annual report, Water Plus revealed that the highest-paid director – chief executive andy Hughes – was paid £269,000, an increase of 16pc on the previous year.

News of the payout comes weeks after it emerged that Water Plus had been the subject of the largest number of gripes from business customers.

It had 8,211 written complaints in the past year – more per customer than any of its competitors and up a quarter on the previous year, according to the independent Consumer Council for Water (CCW).

the actual number of unhappy customers is likely to have been a lot higher as the figures excluded telephone complaints.

Hughes told the Daily Mail: ‘While we’re very disappointed with the number of complaints and we’ll continue our efforts with customers, we’ve improved in all other market measures, including seeing us in the top four water retailers for market performance scores this financial year.’

Water Plus is the largest player in the business water market, which was opened up to competition five years ago in what was the biggest shake-up of the sector since privatisation in 1989.

Following the changes some 1.2m businesses, charities and public sector bodies can shop around for water services, negotiate prices and benefit from a simplified ‘one bill’ system.

‘the water market in england promised to deliver higher standards of service but too many business customers are still experiencing problems,’ said emma Clancy, chief executive of CCW, in her annual review.

‘With satisfaction and willingness to engage remaining low for most customers in england, it is clear that the fundamental problems in the market are far from resolved. although there are encouraging signs... performance across the industry still has some way to go to reach the levels seen prior to the introduction of the retail market in 2017.’

losses at Water Plus, where severn trent boss liv garfield is a director, narrowed from £14.2m to £2.5m on sales of £535.1m, up 30pc.

garfield is the highest-paid water company boss, netting £9.8m at severn trent in the last three years.

she is followed by steve Mogford, who is another Water Plus board member, and who got £9m as chief executive of united utilities in that time.