Thames Water has handed its chief financial officer a £1 million “golden handshake” and agreed controversial retention payments for senior executives as the heavily indebted utility fights to secure its survival.
The company disclosed the payments to MPs as it seeks a rescue deal with senior creditors and faces the prospect of being placed into temporary public ownership if efforts to stabilise its finances fail.
Steve Buck, Thames Water’s chief financial officer, received the £1 million payment at the end of July from an emergency lending facility provided by creditors. The company said the payment had originally been agreed when he joined in April 2025 but was deferred when wider executive retention payments were suspended.
Thames Water chairman Sir Adrian Montague told the Environmental, Food and Rural Affairs Committee that the payment was considered a “necessary incentive” to recruit Mr Buck and was made following legal advice.
The company has also agreed individual settlements with 12 senior executives over disputed retention payments, as well as two former employees.
The sums have not been disclosed.
The decision comes despite an outcry last year over executive rewards. Thames Water agreed in December to suspend £2.46 million of retention payments intended for 21 senior managers, having already paid a similar amount earlier in 2025.
Sir Adrian defended the latest arrangements, arguing that reaching individual agreements would be cheaper and less disruptive than allowing the matter to proceed to court.
He also said the payments were necessary to retain senior managers while the company navigated an “uncertainty” over its future.
But the explanation is unlikely to soothe customers facing high bills while the company remains burdened by more than £20 billion of debt.
River Action described the payments as “indefensible”, pointing to the scale of the utility’s financial problems and its record on environmental performance.
Amy Fairman, the campaign group’s head of campaigns, said the company was losing 571 million litres of water every day while rivers across its operating area were being polluted by sewage.
The controversy comes as Thames Water attempts to secure a rescue package backed by senior creditors. Failure could leave ministers facing renewed pressure to intervene.
For customers, the latest payouts sharpen an uncomfortable question: how can a company struggling under billions of pounds of debt justify seven-figure rewards for the executives charged with fixing it?
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