THE Shadow Environment Secretary visited the Bradford district today as Labour hit out at bonuses given to water bosses across the country.

Setting out its plan, Labour said it would give Ofwat, the water regulator, new powers to ban bonuses for water bosses in the face of illegal pollution.

But Yorkshire Water was quick to point out that its current CEO turned down a bonus last year “due to her strength of feeling about issues linked to river health”.

In January 2023. Yorkshire Water was fined £233,000 for discharging 20 million litres of raw sewage into Tong Beck and in July 2022, £1.6 million over sewage leaks into Bradford Beck. 

Other points of Labour’s plan for water companies include ending self-monitoring and forcing them to monitor every single water outlet; make water bosses face personal criminal liability for extreme and persistent law-breaking and introducing severe and automatic fines for illegal sewage discharges.

A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said: “The remuneration package for executives at Yorkshire Water is set by an independent remuneration committee and includes a range of environmental targets.

"Our current CEO turned down a bonus in July 2023 and apologised to customers due to her strength of feeling about issues linked to river health and is committed to achieving long-term improvements in Yorkshire Water’s performance.

“Yorkshire Water is working to reduce sewage discharges and pollution incidents and is investing £180m before April 2025 across the region to begin tackling this issue. It has also submitted plans to Ofwat for approval for 2025-2030, outlining a £1.3bn investment in reducing overflows into watercourses further.”