Speeches by Dollimore.

“Every time we have the Thames Water members in front of this Committee, they make assurances about turnaround plans and make commitments. Then when the next set of leaders come around—”

“But it did not work.”

“Perhaps a better use of that money would have been fixing pipes.”

“Why is that wrong?”

“So why pay the bonuses and the dividends?”

“It is very clear you pay very large bonuses to those at the top of your company. The most junior employees in your company—the people out repairing the water leaks on the roads—what percentage bonus did they get last year?”

“You clearly rowed back on commitments, and the impact of that is clearly seen. As Chris just alluded to, there has been a 40% rise in pollution incidents last year under your watch. Last year, you made profits of £140 million, so all this talk about not having the money to do these vital infrastructure projects, custom…”

“Are you not aware of that figure?”

“You did not, because these were asset health projects that you deferred.”

“Which would have more than covered the 98 projects put back.”

“Adrian, if you will allow me to finish the point, we ask the questions at this Committee. We have seen many changes of leadership. At every evidence session, the Committee have been given big assurances by that set of leadership. Then, at the next evidence session, we have a different set of leadership before us, apolo…”

“That was also to pay some money to bonuses and dividends; the two are linked, so address the two together.”

“How can customers have any faith that you are committed to turning around the business and reducing sewage pollution incidents and water outages if these 100 vital projects—projects that you committed to the legal regulator you would do in 2019—were rowed back on?”

“I would like to touch on some past experiences that customers have had with Southern Water. In 2019, you committed to the regulator, Ofwat, that you would undertake a series of vital infrastructure projects to prevent storm overflows, reduce pollution instances and improve water security, as we have just been talking a…”

“Can customers have any faith now that what you have committed to do will be done if you row back on these commitments so easily?”

“You just said you do not think you rowed—”

“As the chairman of the company, if you think bonuses are so important to rewarding performance—”

“Just to be clear, these 100 projects were committed to be done in the 2019-24 period. Customers were charged on that basis for these works, but they were not done, so you have rowed back on those commitments.”

“But the impact of that referral—”

“Another area that people have raised with me is that often when there is a leak or repair to be done—which everybody understands that work needs to be done—the road is dug up and then it is left for inordinate lengths of time. Quite often, it appears that nobody is doing any work on that site, but huge delays are being…”