MP calls for Yorkshire Water boss to give £1.3m off-shore payments to Dales river charity
Labour has launched a petition calling on Yorkshire Water boss Nicola Shaw to donate the £1.3m off-shore payments she received from the firm’s parent company to the Yorkshire Rivers Trust.
Earlier in the year, 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 the parent company is registered.
These twin payments pushed the CEO’s overall remuneration over the last two years to above £3m, at a time when serious pollution incidents have tripled and a hosepipe ban is in place.
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”.
Now, Shipley MP Anna Dixon has launched a petition calling on Ms Shaw to donate those payments to the Yorkshire Rivers Trust, which works to protect the Swale, Ure, Nidd, Wharfe and Ouse.
She told The Yorkshire Post: “I’ve been raising issues with Yorkshire Water’s performance and finances since I got elected.
“The Government has taken action to ban these performance bonuses, and yet we discover the CEO of Yorkshire Water has ended up receiving an extra £1.3m.
“I’m disgusted and my constituents are disgusted with paying higher bills, while we’re on a hosepipe ban and the scandal of the sewage dumping continues.
“I want her to give this money to a cause that is doing good work to clean up our rivers.”
A Yorkshire Water spokesperson: “The shareholder-funded fee is fixed, not a bonus, and not paid by customers.
“We are already in the process of arranging a meeting with Yorkshire MPs to discuss this issue, as well as our wider plan that includes a record £8.3bn investment in Yorkshire’s water and wastewater services.
“We have also committed to greater transparency by publishing the value of shareholder-funded payments, aligning with listed-company remuneration reporting standards, and providing regular public performance.”