Who are the key figures in the sewage crisis, and where are they now? | Water

James Bevan

Sir Bevan, a former Foreign Office mandarin, served as director general of the Environment Agency from 2015 until March 2023. He has been criticized both inside and outside the agency for failing to monitor the behavior of water companies. stifling field work on the front linesreduce tracking, failure to protect rivers, gagging staffand seeking to weaken strict regulations, faced with growing public outcry over the state of Britain’s rivers. showing over and over again what the waterways are like. they are suffocated by a cocktail of sewage and agricultural pollution.

Bevan said he liked the operator’s self-monitoring system, which gives water companies the power to report their own pollution, which critics describe as marking their own homework. The Labor government is ending the practice. “We have quite sophisticated ways of checking this data,” Bevan told MPs.

In February 2025, he was appointed a non-executive director of Dwr Cymru, or Welsh Water, a not-for-profit, non-shareholder water company. The company said: “His extensive experience in environmental regulation and public policy… has been constructive and valuable at a time of significant activity, including regulatory reform and investment in the sector.”

David Black

Black served as Ofwat’s chief executive from April 2022 until 2025. He joined the regulator in 2012 as director of economics and was later promoted to head of regulation.

During his tenure at the regulator, water companies massively expanded their debt loads above Ofwat’s 60% benchmark, created complex offshore structures to minimize tax bills and paid high dividends while neglecting infrastructure. Economist Dieter Helm described the way private companies manage the water industry as follows: “excellent financial engineering”.

Black leaves Ofwat in August 2025 after government decision to replace the regulator. It is scheduled to appear at the 2026 Weekend Bugs Festival in Hay-on-Wye this month. At £150 per ticket, he will explain what’s gone wrong in the UK’s water industry and how to fix it.

Richard Aylard

Aylard, a retired Royal Navy officer, joined Thames Water in 2002 as corporate responsibility director and subsequently became director of external affairs and sustainability.

It was at the forefront of public anger over sewage pollution and water shortages in south-east England. He currently serves as a director and special advisor to the chief executive of Thames Water. He served as the company’s primary spokesperson on environmental performance issues, such as discussing investment plans for sewer infrastructure.

Matthew Wright

Wright was chief executive of Southern Water between 2011 and 2016, when the company illegally discharged billions of liters of raw sewage into protected waters in Hampshire and Kent.

a judge Güney fined record £90 million For discharging between 16 and 21 billion liters of raw sewage into some of the most sensitive environments in the country in 2020 and for distorting data by “massively under-reporting” the number of illegal pollution leaks. Ofwat broke a record £126 million fine In the South in 2019 for the same crimes.

Wright, who was paid more than £5 million during his time at the helm when the failures occurred, left the company in December 2016 and became UK director of Danish renewable energy company Ørsted until 2020. He later worked at National Grid ESO and served as chief operating officer of Exagen Group, which transitioned to renewable energy, until February 2024. He admitted that the crimes at Southern Water occurred “partly under my supervision”.

Susan Davy

Davy was chief executive of South West Water for five years and was the company’s treasurer from 2015 until his retirement in December last year. He ran the company responsible for repeated sewage pollution and two star environmental performance rating.

He was also involved in providing water unfit for human consumption to 2,500 households in 2024. Pleaded guilty on March 4.

Davy received a pay package of £803,000 for the role in the last financial year, after receiving £191,000 in long-term bonuses.

Leaving he said: “Running a water company is always interesting, often challenging but thoroughly rewarding. I have enjoyed taking on the responsibility of providing a sustainable service to millions of homes.”

Ofwat imposed 24 million pound sanctions package Last summer, following a three-year investigation at South West Water into failures in the management of wastewater treatment works and sewer networks.

The regulator said the company had failed to improve treatment works to prevent sewage being discharged into the environment, failed to properly deal with sewage contents and failed to allocate resources to properly monitor treatment works.

Nicola Shaw

Shaw, Yorkshire Water’s chief executive, had his bonus banned last year under a bill introduced by Labor in 2025 to stop bonuses being paid to the heads of companies found to be worst at draining sewage.

Yorkshire Water has been fined £47 million in 2024 for excessive leaks from storm floods due to poor maintenance. Ofwat said the company routinely discharged sewage, saying it had failed to ensure that storm-related flooding only occurred in exceptional circumstances, “resulting in harm to the environment and customers”.

Aunt Shaw received extra payments totaling £660,000 from Yorkshire Water’s Jersey-listed parent company, Kelda Holdings, in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 financial years.

Sarah Bentley

Bentley was chief executive of Thames Water from September 2020 to June 2023. He joined from Severn Trent and promised an eight-year return to the company, but left with immediate effect three years later following a public outcry over the dumping of raw sewage into rivers and missing targets on pollution and sewer overflows.

Bentley announced in 2023 that it would waive the bonus for the 2022-23 financial year, but the company was accused of a weak public relations campaign after it was revealed that it had been given a bonus. almost twice as much annual salary and a pay package of £1.5 million. Bentley did little to cover the huge debts incurred by Thames Water; £20 billionor reduce record levels of sewage pollution into the environment.

Almost three-quarters of Thames Water’s treatment works have been abandoned amid a major Ofwat investigation into illegal sewage discharges. The regulator fined the company £104 million in June 2024 over the routine discharge of raw sewage into the environment. It was stated that almost 70 percent of treatment plants in the Thames had operational problems and the company was unable to manage wastewater networks effectively.

david henderson

As chief executive of the industry’s trade association Water UK, Henderson worked alongside Ofwat. Reduce penalties for water companies and potential prison time for senior executives.

Henderson is a former Downing Street official who was a long-time adviser to Gordon Brown and former Labor cabinet minister Ruth Kelly.

David Miliband

Miliband was environment secretary in October 2006, when Macquarie’s deal to take over Thames Water was agreed. Miliband was chairman and chief executive of the company. International Rescue Committee (IRC) is a global humanitarian organization since 2013.

Regina Finn

Finn was chairman of Ofwat when it approved the Macquarie deal.

Macquarie ushered in an era of heavy financial leverage, debt accumulation and dividend capture. It has saddled Thames Water with significant debt while issuing around £1.1bn dividend and interest paymentsleaving him with a legacy of high debt. Thames Water has since admitted the company is losing its assets for decades.

Finn currently works as a director at consulting firm Lucerna Partners. one of ten big customers Thames Water.