Anglian Water to pay £92m dividend to house owners

Anglian Water is paying a £92million dividend to its house owners regardless of rising payments and a backlash over air pollution.

The utilities titan, which is owned by a consortium of abroad buyers, stated it was ‘repaying the faith’ which its shareholders had positioned in it.

But the bumper payout comes at a time when Anglian has raised buyer payments by £22 a 12 months. It has additionally been slapped with three fines over water air pollution up to now in 2022.

One nice adopted a catastrophe in 2016 that noticed untreated sewage kill greater than 5,000 fish in Essex’s River Wid. Anglian was pressured to pay out £300,000 to the Environment Agency this month.

Campaigners accused the corporate’s house owners, together with the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, of ‘making off with our money like bandits’.

Chief government Peter Simpson and finance boss Steve Buck additionally made a mixed bonus of £2.2million, on high of their mixed base pay of greater than £900,000.

Feargal Sharkey, an environmental protester, informed the Financial Times: ‘Anglian has no shame. 

At a time when many people are struggling with the cost of living, we are being forced to pay for these fat-cat dividends and salaries through our water bills.

‘Not only are they making off with our money like bandits, they are polluting our rivers and depleting our future water supplies.’ 

Anglian serves 7m prospects throughout 13 counties within the east of England.

The £92million dividend, for the 12 months to March 2022, was the primary handout to shareholders since 2017. 

Anglian stated its house owners had ‘shared our vision of investing today to ensure the long-term resilience of our region’.