Exclusive:Yorkshire Water refuses to say whether CEO will continue to receive annual off-shore payments of £660K

In the 2024-25 financial year, she only attended a third of Kelda Group’s board meetings, despite the “expectation, practice and experience … that all directors attend and fully participate in each Board meeting”.

It is understood that on one occasion Ms Shaw had Covid, and on another she was giving a speech on behalf of the company.

Despite multiple approaches from this paper, Yorkshire Water said it had no comment on whether Ms Shaw will continue receiving the annual £660,000 fee for work which it said “has been critical to the business”.

These twin payments pushed the CEO’s overall remuneration over the last two years to above £3m.

It comes as Yorkshire’s four metro mayors and senior council leaders wrote to Yorkshire Water chairman Vanda Murray requesting an urgent meeting to discuss “serious concerns” they have about the payments.

None of Ms Shaw’s predecessors were paid the fees that were revealed by The Guardian newspaper this week.

Yorkshire Water admitted that Ms Shaw received two £660,000 payments for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 financial years from Kelda Holdings, on top of her main salary and bonus.

These were not published in Yorkshire Water’s annual report and executive pay does not have to be declared in Jersey, which is where its parent company is registered.

Kelda Holdings - part owned by the Singapore government and various investment funds - is the parent company of UK-based Kelda Group, which then sits above Yorkshire Water in the complex ownership chain.

The second payment is now being looked at “with urgency” by the water industry regulator Ofwat, to see if it breaches the Government’s bonus ban.

Yorkshire Water has insisted the payment was for Ms Shaw’s additional work as CEO of Kelda Group, which included “investor engagement, financial oversight, and management”.

It means that Ms Shaw’s overall remuneration over the last two financial years has been more than £3m, at a time when serious pollution incidents have trebled, bills are set to increase by 41 per cent over the next five years and there is a hosepipe ban across the region.

In 2024-25, Yorkshire Water said Ms Shaw decided “it would not be appropriate for her to receive an annual bonus this year due to the company's performance on pollution”, on top of her annual salary of £689,000.

Since the revelations, more than a dozen Labour MPs have written to Ms Murray demanding answers about the additional payments, describing them as “disgraceful” and “a betrayal of public trust”.

Yesterday, Mayors Oliver Coppard, Tracy Brabin, David Skaith and Luke Campbell wrote to the Yorkshire Water chair to raise “serious concerns” about the fees.

They said the “contradiction between public statements and hidden payments is especially galling for customers who are being asked to pay more”.

Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Tom Gordon said: “Nicola Shaw should be focused on her day job as CEO of our precious county's water supply, not accepting backhanders from parent companies.

“I'm calling on her to do the decent thing, hand her payment back, and focus on delivering for residents and bill payers.”

A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said: “The work that Nicola carries out for Kelda Holdings, our parent company, includes managing investor engagement and financial oversight at the group level, not just attending board meetings.

“This is distinct from her customer-facing role at Yorkshire Water and the fee for such services is therefore funded by Kelda as shareholders.

“This work has been critical to the business, enabling over £500m of new shareholder equity to be secured with a further commitment of £600m before the end of March 2027.”