Steve Reed says ban on water company bonuses is 'promise made, promise delivered'

Well, it's good to be with you again, Eamon

And I think what we're doing is right. I think it's justified

I mean, I don't know whether you know how much the water company bosses

paid themselves in bonuses over the last 10 years. Tell us. It's over £100 million

And all the while, they were overseeing record levels of sewage pollution

into our rivers, lakes and seas. And that's just bonuses. That's just bonuses

That's just bonuses. That's just bonuses. That was the bonuses. Now, in most people's minds, you get a bonus because you've done a good job

These people were overseeing record levels of sewage dumped in our rivers and our lakes and our seas

Well, the era of profiting from pollution ends today. We've announced or the regulator has announced a ban on the bonuses for those six water companies that you just named

That's two thirds of the entire sector. We said before the general election, this is what we do

promise made, promise delivered. And this is a big part of our reset

of the water sector so we can finally clean up the sewage from our

waterways. Now, I think most people listening to that would applaud this move because it does seem dreadful that these people get huge bonuses for not doing their job properly frankly But denying them their bonuses will it actually do

anything about sewage being pumped into our seas and rivers? It's a part of the package, Anne

but it's not everything. So what we're looking at doing is how can we strengthen enforcement

increase the levels of investment and modernise the entire system? So on enforcement

We've now launched 81 separate criminal investigations into the water companies so we can find out what they're doing and hold them to account over the levels of pollution

On investment, we've secured £104 billion of private sector money. That is the biggest investment ever into our water sector

It means we can replace those broken sewage pipes and stop the flow of sewage into our rivers, our lakes and into our seas

And in terms of modernising the system, well, I've already had an interim report last week

from Sir John Conliffe who is leading a review into the water sector for me. The final report

will be on my desk next month. We'll then pass legislation to strengthen the rules, the

regulations and the regulator so the abuses that were able to happen in the past that led to this sewage standstill can never happen again But Steve can they happen again I just interested and I concerned about this

The reason people are investing in these companies, and they're usually people from overseas

is that it offers a great return. It offers a great return for them for relatively little output

If that becomes less attractive, do people stop investing in our water companies

Well, I mean, the fact that we've already secured that £104 billion investment shows you that we can get

the money to come in that we need. We've basically got a system that's crumbled

You know, underneath our feet are Victorian sewers. They should have been maintained over the last 10 years

to stop them collapsing entirely. They weren't, unfortunately. So we're bringing that money in now

We want to work with investors, good, sensible investors, to make sure the money comes in

But it's not just about the investment. We also have to strengthen regulation

We have to give the regulators the teeth they need to stop the abuses that were going on in the past

I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that water companies were profiting from pollution We putting a stop to that We want to see a successful sector that works well for customers that works well for the environment and is attractive to investors who should get a fair return but not an excessive return

Can I just ask you about the money? Because if you're going to stop from today, those bosses

being able to pay themselves huge bonuses, what happens to the money that they would have paid

themselves? Can that be invested elsewhere? Or was the money just going to come from us

the consumer, and will we benefit? Who will benefit financially from what you're imposing

on them today? Well, just imagine, Anne, over the last 10 years, over £100 million has been

given out in bonuses, despite the levels of failure that we're all so very well aware of

If that money had been invested in upgrading some of those pipes and maintaining them

perhaps they wouldn't have crumbled to the extent that they did. Perhaps we then wouldn't have seen

so much sewage are swilling into our waterways. We want to focus the water company bosses

on fixing the problem with sewage, not just maximising their income with bonuses

I think I said a moment ago, the British people think it's unfair

that you should get a bonus for failing at your job. If you do well, all well and good

But if you're failing at your job, you shouldn't get the bonus, and that's why we've stopped it. Steve..