Water boss (on £360k a year) wants to hike 500,000 people’s bills
HALF a million Scots face a bill hike after Scottish Water backed plans to slash a discount for people living alone.
The quango, whose chief executive Douglas Millican earned £360,000 last year, warned that not raising water bills would ‘have an adverse impact on revenues’.
Single people, including parents and elderly widows, face seeing their discount on water bills cut from 25 per cent to 10 – with fears it could be scrapped completely.
Almost 950,000 Scots living alone pay reduced bills.
The Government is considering more support for the 481,450 people who get council tax reductions. That would come at the expense of the 459,000 who do not qualify.
The proposals were outlined in a Scottish Government consultation on how water bills should be set between 2021 and 2027.
Scottish Water had previously insisted any such changes were ‘a matter of government policy’.
However, its consultation response revealed that the quango lobbied to hike bills.
The response said: ‘Scottish Water is supportive of the proposal to use increased revenue from lowering single person discounts to finance additional support to households receiving council tax benefit.
‘There would be an adverse impact on Scottish Water’s revenues if the additional financial support were introduced more quickly than status discounts are reduced.’
Those revenues help pay Mr Millican, who got a salary of £256,000 last year – dwarfing Theresa May’s £153,907, or the £135,605 earned by Nicola Sturgeon. He is also entitled to £12,000 of benefits and up to £92,000 in incentives.
According to Scottish Water’s 2017/18 annual report, this means his total pay packet, before pension contributions, was £360,000 – around 14 times the Scottish average.
Chloe Westley, at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Ideally, the Scottish Government should be promoting policies which lower bills and costs for all taxpayers, and calling on top bosses at Scottish Water to cut down on their excessive salaries if there are budgeting issues.’
Politicians and charities also urged a rethink.
Scottish Labour MSP Jackie Baillie said: ‘This is nothing short of an attack on single people – who may be living alone because they are widowed – and on single parents who struggle on one income.’
Adam Stachura, head of policy at Age Scotland, added: ‘More Scots over 70 are living alone than ever before. This is expected to increase by nearly half in the next 25 years.
‘Four in ten Scots over 50 report feeling financially squeezed and six in ten pensioners who live alone report difficulty in paying their energy bill.’
However, a Scottish Water spokesman said: ‘Scottish Water believes that help with water charges should be targeted at those who most need it.
‘The Scottish Government will now consider how best to take this forward.’
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We intend to undertake further research, consultation and engagement before making a final decision.’