Anger is growing over the huge sums given to shareholders and their executives, given the companies’ track record of dealing with spills and pollution and their failure to build more tanks. Politicians and campaigners are calling for water company bosses to freeze their bonuses until they address these issues. Bosses at England’s privatized water companies have come under fire for bankrolling £58m in pay and benefits over the past five years. Since the privatisation, shareholders have been paid £72bn in dividends. The cash came from big debt, with companies borrowing £56 billion, and big bills, with prices rising 40%. Exactly how much do different companies pay their bosses?

Thames water

Area: Greater London, parts of Kent, Essex and Gloucestershire CEO: Sarah Bentley Fee: £2m Duration: September 2020-present Sarah Bentley has joined Thames Water with a £3.1m ‘golden hello’. Photo: Thames Water Bentley received £2m in pay and bonuses last year. He held senior roles at telecoms giant BT, consultancy Accenture and Severn Trent Water before joining Thames Water with a £3.1m “golden hello”, including two lump sum payments of £727,000. Last year, the company was fined £4m for dumping raw sewage into two Oxford streams.

Anglian Water

Region: East of England, including Norfolk and Cambridgeshire CEO: Peter Simpson Fee: £1.3m Duration: 2013-present Peter Simpson received a £337,651 bonus despite the company’s poor record on pollution. Photo: Anglian Water Simpson led the group for nearly a decade and before that was its chief executive. He is a former chairman of the Water Institute and faced criticism last month when the Guardian revealed he had received a £337,651 bonus despite the company having one of the worst pollution records in the industry.

Severn Trent

Area: Stretches from the Bristol Channel to the Humber and from mid-Wales to the east MidlandsCEO: Liv GarfieldPayment: £3.9m Duration: 2014-present Liv Garfield, of Severn Trent, who was fined £1.5m last year for dumping sewage in Worcestershire. Photo: Bloomberg/Getty Garfield was previously managing director of BT’s infrastructure division, Openreach. The Everton fan said she is not a fan of hot spells and that “the best weather for water companies is 17 degrees and a drizzle”. The company was fined £1.5m for dumping sewage in Worcestershire last year.

Region: South West England CEO: Susan DavyPay: £1.6m Duration: 2020-present Susan Davy, from South West Water, has faced criticism over pollution levels. Photo: Severn Trent Davy joined the group as finance director of South West Water, which Pennon owns, in 2007 he became group finance chief and then group boss. He said he became familiar with the water industry when a drought in the mid-1990s raised concerns about water scarcity. She entered the industry as a junior accountant at Yorkshire Water. South West Water has faced criticism over pollution levels affecting beaches in Cornwall and Devon.

Wessex Water

Area: Parts of south-west England, including Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire. Colin Skellet with David Cameron in 2011. Photo: PA /Alamy Skellett is a scientist and engineer who in 1989 took over the company through privatization. Wessex Water has issued a warning about “non-essential” water use and has a 40ft swimming pool at his home in a village outside Bath, believed to be worth more than £3m. Wessex Water paid £975,000 for raw sewage spills in Dorset in 2018.

United Utilities

Region: North West England CEO: Steve MogfordPay: £3.2m Duration: 2011-present Steve Mogford of United Utilities. Mogford spent his early career in the aerospace and defense industry, including roles at British Aerospace, BAE Systems and SELEX Galileo, where he was managing director. He is due to retire in 2023, when he will be succeeded by customer and people director Louise Beardmore, meaning all but one of the top jobs at FTSE-listed UK water companies will be held by women.

Northumbrian water

Region: North East England, Essex, Suffolk CEO: Heidi MottramPay: £648,000 Duration: 2010-present Heidi Mottram apologized in January after a worker nearly lost a leg when he was hit by a 1.5 tonne pipe. Photo: Medicimage Education/Alamy Mottram is Chief Executive of the Northumbrian Water Group, which includes Essex and Suffolk Water. She was awarded an OBE in 2010 for services to the rail industry and a CBE in 2018 for services to the water industry and the business community. In January, it issued a “personal and sincere” apology after a worker nearly lost a leg when he was hit by a 1.5-tonne pipe. The company was fined £365,000 over the incident.

South Water

Region: Hampshire, West Sussex, Isle of Wight, parts of Kent Director: Lawrence GosdenPay: Undisclosed Duration: July 1 to present Lawrence Gosden of Southern Water. Gosden recently took over from Ian McAulay, who is retiring at the end of the year and who took home more than £1million last year. Gosden began his career at Southern as a graduate and spent 12 years at Thames Water. Last year Southern was fined a record £90m for deliberately dumping sewage into the sea.

Yorkshire Water

Region: Yorkshire, North Lincolnshire, Derbyshire CEO: Nicola ShawPay: Undisclosed Duration: May 9 to present Nicola Shaw is a former chief executive of National Grid UK. Photo: Graham Turner/The Guardian Shaw took over from Liz Barber earlier this year. The former chief executive of National Grid UK, who was also boss of High Speed ​​​​1, is likely to receive similar pay to her predecessor, who received £1.4m.

Scotch water

Region: Scotland CEO: Douglas MillicanPay: £558,000 Duration: 2013-present Douglas Millican of Scottish Water. Photo: Scottish Water Millican was director of finance and regulation since Scottish Water, a public entity, from when it was founded in 2002 until he took the reins nine years ago. Company executives have been criticized for taking a £10,000 “car benefit” during the pandemic. Last year, the company was fined £6,700 after admitting a water pollution incident in which at least 500 fish died.

Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water

Region: Wales CEO: Peter PerryPay: £675,000 Duration: 2020-present Peter Perry of Welsh Water. The company has 3 million customers and operates on a non-profit basis. But Perry’s company has been called on to take action after a rise in pollution incidents. Perry is a lifer in the water industry, having held roles at United Utilities in Scotland and Ireland.

Northern Ireland Water

Region: Northern Ireland CEO: Sara Venning Pay: £210,000-£215,000 Duration: 2014-present Sara Venning, of Northern Ireland Water. Photo: Department of Energy/PA Northern Ireland Water was never privatised, leaving Venning with a salary which – although high compared to the average UK salary – is modest by industry standards. The former Northern Ireland Electricity executive’s first job was at her grandfather’s clothing store, Eastwoods Clothing Co in Cookstown, County Tyrone.