Thames Tideway paid bonuses of more than £4.7 million last year, including a long-term incentive payment to its chief executive of more than three times his salary.
For the full year to March 2023, Andy Mitchell received total remuneration of £2.7 million. This included £468,000 salary and £1.7 million for hitting the long-term incentive plan requirement to complete tunnelling on schedule.
Chief financial officer Mathew Duncan received a bonus of £835,000 on top of his £330,000 salary.
Former chief operating officer Mark Sneesby, who stepped down in 2021, was awarded £1.2 million for meeting the tunnelling schedule during his time with the organisation.
The remuneration committee assessed that Tideway had met 70% of its goals overall for the year, reflected in equivalent levels of bonus.
Staff below senior management were awarded up to 10% pay increase for six months to March 2023 to help during the cost of living crisis. This was funded from the salaries of executive directors.
Following the annual pay review, the remuneration committee raised salaries by an average 4%, or 3.5% for executive directors. Given the cost of living crisis, the additional allowance was introduced to support lower incomed staff between October 2022 and March 2023.
Construction is now 90% complete on the London super sewer, which is due to be commissioned to Thames Water by 2027. All financing targets for the year were met.
During the year, the company reported a profit of £144.6 million, up from a loss of £10.9 million in 2021/22. No dividends were paid or proposed and corporation tax was nil.
The project secured debt funding of £3,167 million, of which £2,941 million was received after the end of the financial year and £160 million is yet to be drawn down.
The company’s gender pay gap has fallen from 43% in 2017 to 21% at the end of 2022. However, against a target of 40% women in the organisation, Tideway employed just 33% women this year, down from 36% the previous. The number of women working at Tideway dropped from 148 in 2019, to 89 in 2023. At senior levels, the number of positions held by females has fallen from 18 (out of 40 total) in 2019 to just 10 (out of 27 total) this year.