More than £4 million of potential bonuses were blocked by Ofwat’s new rule on water bosses’ performance related pay in the last financial year as firms chose to comply, according to the water sector economic regulator’s latest performance related executive pay report published today.

On 25 February Ofwat hosted its Turning the Tide conference in Westminster bringing together water companies, eNGOs, campaigners and others from the sector to discuss the AMP8 period and year ahead.

Ofwat has today announced that new rules on executive bonuses and on dividends are beginning to bite in their first full year of operation, in 2023-24 financial year - the regulator says that 73% of exec bonus payments will not be paid for by water customers in a new report Protecting customer interests on performance-related executive pay: 2023-24 assessment.

Moody's Ratings has placed the Baa3 backed and underlying senior secured ratings of Southern Water (Finance) I PLC (Southern Water) on review for downgrade following the publication on 11 July of Ofwat's Draft Deternination on the company's AMP8 Business Plan - previously, the outlook was stable.

Ofwat is asking business retailers to provide further information about their finances with the aim of strengthening its monitoring and oversight of financial resilience in the business retail market.

Thames Water shareholders have agreed to provide a further £750 million of equity funding in AMP7, in addition to the £500 million of new equity funds Thames Water drew down on 30 March 2023 following the commitment made by shareholders in June 2022.

Ofwat has allowed Portsmouth Water to maintain one Issuer Credit Rating with a single credit ratings agency rather than two – only 10 days after the water company requested the change and less than three months after the licence requirement for two came into effect.

Water sector regulator Ofwat has issued a statement this evening commenting on Thames Water's financial resilience, saying the water company has "strong liquidity."

Ofwat has today announced new powers that will enable it to stop the payment of dividends if they would risk the company’s financial resilience, and take enforcement action against water companies that don’t link dividend payments to performance.

Ofwat has today published its annual assessment of company operational performance and a summary of the financial resilience of companies - Northumbrian Water, Southern Water, South West Water, Thames Water, Welsh Water and Yorkshire Water have been named as the worst performing companies operationally.