Yorkshire Water boss took home a £240,000 bonus this year
Yorkshire water chief executive Richard Flint took home £1.2m for the year through March, including a £240,000 bonus for meeting targets such as building “strong financial foundations” and a reputation as a trusted company.
This was down from the £1.47m he was paid the year before.
Ray O'Toole, chairman of the remuneration committee, said in the firm's annual report: “The basic salary of the chief executive increased by 3.2 per cent from £387,600 to £400,000 and the salary of the group director of finance, regulation and markets rose by one per cent from £276,019 to £278,779.”
Bonus payments of 60 per cent for Flint and 60.5 per cent for the group finance director Liz Barber were awarded for 2015-16 – the maximum being 100 per cent of salary – which O'Toole said reflected “the overall performance achieved by the company”.
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Yorkshire Water is the fifth largest of the 10 water and sewage companies in England and Wales, providing drinking water to around five million people and around 130,000 local businesses. Its parent company Kelda Eurobond lost £319m (a 12 per cent drop from 2014), on £1bn turnover.
Last year Moody's downgraded Yorkshire Water's credit rating due to risks associated with the firm's significant derivatives portfolio.
Backlash over bosses' big pay packets has continued to rage in recent months – stoked most recently by High Pay Centre research claiming the average pay of FTSE 100 chief execs rose by 10 per cent to £5.5m.
Shareholders have targeted the remuneration of several big-name chief executives this year already and with WPP's half-year results on the way this week, the debate is unlikely to go away anytime soon.
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Many WPP shareholders have already voiced their concerns over chief exec Sir Martin Sorrell's £70m pay package.