was taken to court after he withheld the Southern Water portion of his bill<\/a>, has hit out at the system allowing Mr Gosden to be rewarded.<\/p>\nSpeaking to KentOnline, he said: \u201cIt\u2019s legal, because the law was passed after it was agreed but morally, it\u2019s disgraceful.<\/p>\n
![\"Protest](\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg)
Protest against Southern Water sewage leaks in Thanet. Picture: Frank Leppard photography<\/p>\n
\u201cI was told in court I could not withhold my payment because they have a statutory right to collect that money even if they perform very badly and pollute the sea.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think most reasonable people would agree they do pollute the sea.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey continue to abuse their position, and I don\u2019t know what performance this is supposed to be, but it must be a corrupt set-up that allows somebody to be paid hundreds of thousands of pounds extra for doing a very bad job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Southern Water says the expense will be paid for entirely by shareholders, not customers, who will continue to invest, having already put \u00a31.6 billion into the firm.<\/p>\n
It comes despite the government\u2019s water regulator, Ofwat, confirming Southern Water is now one of six companies forbidden from paying senior executives traditional bonuses for failing to meet high standards.<\/p>\n
This new rule, which came into effect in June, prevented Mr Gosden from pocketing a further \u00a3396,475, but the company says his LTIP bonus up to the end of March will be paid in full as it was agreed before the ban was brought in.<\/p>\n
SOS Whitstable in Tankerton protesting against Southern Water wastewater and sewage releases into the sea. Picture: Tom Banbury @tombanbury<\/p>\n
Ofwat has also clarified its priority is to protect customers and that it couldn\u2019t intervene on this occasion.<\/p>\n
For the eighth consecutive year, Southern Water says no dividends were paid to external shareholders \u2013 with no plans to make any dividend payments until 2030 at the earliest.<\/p>\n
A Southern Water spokesperson said: \u201cChief executive and chief finance officer salaries and benefits are decided by the Remuneration Committee, with a majority membership of independent non-executive directors, and following protocols and rules set out by Ofwat and in accordance with the law.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir decision is reviewed by external remuneration consultants who bring sectoral and wider business experience as well as remuneration expertise.<\/p>\n
\u201cLawrence Gosden\u2019s 2025 package includes a relocation allowance and Long Term Incentive Plan paid by shareholders, which marks improvements made during the delivery of our Turnaround Plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth of these payments represent common industry practice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sewage protester Chris Stanley said the payment is “morally disgraceful”<\/p>\n
The two-year turnaround plan was designed to deliver \u201ca short sharp boost in performance\u201d after being plagued with complaints over sewage leaks and dumping.<\/p>\n
A new 24\/7 Control Centre now coordinates activity across the Southern Water network, using data from 32,000 digital sewer monitors.<\/p>\n
Southern Water bosses say this has been the driving force behind total pollution figures dropping by more than 30% during the Turnaround Plan period.<\/p>\n
The firm also says it has reduced overall leakage, with an 18% fall in 2024\/25.<\/p>\n
According to the Environment Agency, Southern Water was responsible for 15 pollution incidents considered to pose “serious or persistent” harm to fisheries, drinking water and human health last year.<\/p>\n
In April, bosses pleaded guilty in court to 13 counts<\/a> relating to untreated sewage spills on the Kent coast.<\/p>\nThe Environment Agency brought the prosecution, which relates to unpermitted discharges from Margate and Broadstairs wastewater pumping stations, committed between July 2019 and December 2021.<\/p>\n
The company has not yet been sentenced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The boss of Southern Water received an almost \u00a3700,000 payout linked to the company\u2019s performance just weeks before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3859,84,980,3843,3860,3861,648,2556,59,3862,2759,192,2558,189,191,1318,229,3863,3864,3865,190,194,3868,2555,3866,3867,56,54,55,3045,2557],"class_list":["post-6661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-ashford","tag-business","tag-canterbury","tag-dartford","tag-deal","tag-dover","tag-faversham","tag-folkestone","tag-gb","tag-gravesham","tag-herne-bay","tag-human-interest","tag-hythe","tag-isle-of-sheppey","tag-kent","tag-maidstone","tag-politics","tag-romney-marsh","tag-sandwich","tag-sevenoaks","tag-sittingbourne","tag-syndicate","tag-tenterden","tag-thanet","tag-tonbridge","tag-tunbridge-wells","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-weald","tag-whitstable"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}