Bosses at Yorkshire Water paid more than £3m in bonuses - despite leakages running at 283.1 million litres per day

An aerial view of the drying out bed and receded water levels at Lindley Wood Reservoir in July in Otley Credit: Getty Images

The Lib Dems say the bonuses paid to senior management (£3.298m in 2021/2022) should be going into fixing their leaking pipes instead.

It comes as a hosepipe ban has been announced for 5m customers starting on August 26.

Yorkshire Water’s latest annual report shows that its operating profit grew slightly to £242.3m (from £241.4m in 2021) with revenue increasing year on year by £17.4m to £1,118.5m which the company said was largely due to “allowed inflationary price increases and changes in consumption”.

People walk on the dry cracked earth at Baitings Reservoir in Ripponden, West Yorkshire, where water levels are significantly low. Credit: Danny Lawson/PA Wire

It came as its rating in the Environment Agency’s environmental performance assessment fell from four stars to two stars.

YW said in the report this was down to two factors - an increase in serious pollution incidents and a changing methodology with stricter performance measures.

The report also reveals that the company remains an “industry outlier” because of the number of incidents where sewage or foul water floods up through toilets, sinks or showers inside a building. This was linked to the three named storms Yorkshire experienced in February.

It said “significant focus is being placed on improving performance to the industry average.”

Hull Council leader Mike Ross said: “It is outrageous that whilst thousands of people in Hull suffer from hosepipe bans, water company bosses reward themselves with these bonuses despite not even bothering to fix leaks.”

Of the ten water companies listed, Northumbrian Water gave the least amount of bonuses (£575,000) while United Utilities was the most generous (just under £6m).

Some water companies such as Thames Water lose up to a quarter of all their water from leaks alone.

YW said: “The salaries of our directors are set by an independent remuneration committee and are comparable within the industry.

“We’re working hard to tackle key challenges and protect the environment we live and work in – over the last five years we’ve invested around £500m in leakage reduction – trialling new technologies, ways of working and improving our processes.”