EXECUTIVE bonuses of more than three-quarters-of-a-million pounds for Wessex Water bosses “should be banned until they fix leaking pipes”.

That’s the view of a leading Somerset West and Taunton Council (SWT) portfolio holder this week.

Cllr Andy Sully, who holds the SWT environment portfolio, said Wessex Water had paid bonuses of £775,000 this year despite failing to fix leaking pipes ahead of this summer’s drought.

He said the Government should ban the ‘eye-watering’ bonuses for Wessex Water bosses and use the money instead to fix leaking pipes across the region.

Cllr Sully said water companies were leaking billions of litres of water every day and some, such as Thames Water, lost up to a quarter of all their water from leaks alone.

But water companies had only promised to halve leaks by 2050, despite predictions of a rise in summer droughts as record temperatures continue to be broken.

Together, England’s water company bosses awarded themselves nearly £27 million in bonuses in the past two years, despite reports they allowed a staggering 2.4 billion litres of water to be leaked every day.

Cllr Sully said: “It is outrageous that water company bosses reward themselves with these bonuses despite not even bothering to fix leaks.

“The worst part is, Ministers are just letting water firms get away with scandal after scandal and residents in our area are sick of it.

“These are the very same water companies which pollute our local rivers with disgusting sewage, harming animals and people swimming in them.

“It is time someone stood up to these companies and demanded action.

“That should start with fixing these leaks, and then once and for all ending the sewage pumping into waterways.”

A Wessex Water spokesperson said: “All senior executives’ pay is set by an independent remuneration committee of shareholder representatives and independent non-executive directors, with pay and bonuses linked closely to company performance, in particular customer service and environmental performance.

“Wessex Water consistently leads the industry for customer service and environmental performance and, through significant investment since privatisation, leakage has been halved thanks to our expert leak detection and repair teams.

“We fix more than 1,200 leaks every month, often the same day as they’re reported, and around a quarter of these are on customers’ private pipes that we repair free of charge. More than 90 per cent of those are fixed within a day.

“We are investing record amounts on replacing ageing pipes on our network, leading to a near 11 per cent reduction in leakage in the year 2021-22.”

Addressing the water resource situation, a Wessex Water spokesperson said: “Our groundwater and reservoir levels are below average, as expected at this time of year.

“By investing £228 million in creating a regional water grid, we have enabled water to be transferred from north to south, east to west to meet changing demands. Consequently, we have no plans to introduce a hosepipe ban. We do, however, urge people to use water responsibly for the benefit of everyone and the environment.”

They added that around 63.3 million litres of water is lost per day in the region through leaks in customer pipes – which accounts for around a quarter; and continued reduction of leakage came down by 15% between 2017/18 and 2020/21 – among the best in the industry.