Thames Water paid finance chief a £1 million signing bonus

Thames Water paid its finance chief a £1 million signing-on fee in July 2025 using emergency funding provided by the company’s lenders, according to a letter sent to MPs and reported by the BBC. The payment went to Steve Buck, who joined in April 2025, as the UK’s largest water supplier tries to keep senior staff in place while it negotiates with creditors over a heavily indebted balance sheet.

In the letter to the Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Thames Water chairman Sir Adrian Montague said the company took legal advice and concluded it had contractual obligations to make the payment. Montague acknowledged that customers might see large payouts to senior leaders as unjust, but argued the company needed such terms to stop executives leaving for roles that are “less public, less difficult, and more remunerative,” as the BBC paraphrases his remarks.

The timing collides with the company’s finances and its relationship with regulators and government. Thames Water owes roughly £20 billion, and has been working with creditors and officials on a rescue plan; failure to reach a deal could push the company into a special administration regime, a form of temporary nationalisation in which government-appointed officials run operations while debts are restructured. The BBC notes that special administration could involve public funding to keep the business running and upgrade infrastructure, with the possibility of recouping some taxpayer money if the company is later sold.

Pay and retention arguments are being made against a backdrop of penalties and public anger. Ofwat fined Thames Water a record £122.7 million last year, saying it had let down customers and failed to protect the environment. The company has faced criticism for sewage discharges and leaks for several years, and it has warned it only has enough cash to last until the end of the year, according to the BBC.

Executive pay has also moved in the opposite direction of customer sentiment. The BBC reports Thames Water chief executive Chris Weston received a 14% pay rise over the past year to £1.63 million, and that other directors received bonuses totalling £4.1 million. Weston has said the company needs to pay market rates to attract people capable of turning it around, while also warning that special administration could leave taxpayers bearing the cost.

Thames Water supplies water to 16 million people across London and the Thames Valley. In its current plan, the company’s lenders provide emergency funds that keep the taps running while the same creditors negotiate terms that could determine whether the state steps in.