Thames pays executive sign-on and retention fees

(by Verity Mitchell)

Thames Water has used its emergency borrowing facility to pay a delayed £1m signing-on fee to chief financial officer Steve Buck. The payment was disclosed by Sir Adrian Montague, Thames Water's chairman, to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.

Additionally, Thames Water has reached reduced settlements (which are also extended over a longer period) on retention payments to 14 other executives, including two who have left the company. The £1m payment had been deferred for 15 months with Buck's agreement, but the board had decided it could no longer avoid paying both this and the retention payments, having taken legal advice on contractual employment rights. A wider retention payments scheme set up last year to avert a significant exit of Thames Water executives has, however, been paused.