A breakdown of Peter Perry’s salary and bonuses at Welsh Water over the past few years: 2022-2023: Base salary: £332,000
Bonus: £0 (Perry voluntarily waived his bonus for this year)
2021-2022: Total remuneration: £892,000, which included:
Total Fixed Pay: £652,000 (including pension and pension accrual of £337,000)
Total Variable Pay (bonus): £240,000
2020-2021: Base salary: Increased from £309,000 to £332,000 during this period
2018-2020: Specific salary and bonus information not provided in the search results
It’s worth noting that over a two-year period (likely 2020-2022), Perry, along with two other executives, shared total pay packets of £2.6 million, which included performance-related bonuses worth £931,0003. However, due to public pressure, Perry decided to forgo his bonus for the 2022-2023 financial year.
Perry has defended his salary, stating that while he acknowledges being well-paid, he is “pretty much the lowest paid of my equivalence in England and Wales”4. The company’s remuneration is decided by an independent committee and is subject to approval by independent members.
Peter Perry – Chief Executive, Dwr Cymru Welsh Water
Peter was appointed Chief Executive Officer, Dwr Cymru Welsh Water in April 2020, after roles including Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer in the company.
Appointed Operations Director of Welsh Water in July 2006, Peter has a civil engineering background and was formerly the Chief Operating Officer for United Utilities Operational Services (UUOS) – this was a commercial contracting business delivering utility services. He had previously been the Operations Director for UUOS with responsibility for the operational contract with Welsh Water and UUOS’s water interests in Scotland and Ireland. In Peter’s earlier career he worked for South Wales Electricity as Network Services Manager for Wales. Peter is currently Chair of Business in the Community Cymru and he is a former Non Executive Director of the Water Regulations Advisory Service. Peter is also a Member of the Water UK Board and advisor on the UK Resilience Forum.
https://www.bitc.org.uk/?s=Peter+Perry
https://committees.parliament.uk/event/22337
The boss of Dŵr Cymru defended his high salary during questions at the UK Parliament environment committee. Peter Perry said he believed the payment system was ‘reflective of performance’. Yet, in Wales we have seen stories year on year about Dŵr Cymru being responsible for hundreds of thousands of hours of sewage dumping into Welsh Waterways. Welsh Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and the Environment, Janet Finch-Saunders MS, questioned the record of Dŵr Cymru in recent years.
Dŵr Cymru has had a series of headline grabbing incidents and in January this year as many as 40,000 homes in North Wales were without water following a burst pipe at Bryn Cowlyd Water Treatment Works in Dolgarrog, Conwy. Customers of Dŵr Cymru have also had to endure boil water notices in the Rhondda Cynon Taf area and beaches across Wales have seen some of the highest levels of sewage discharge proportionately across England and Wales.
In 2023, Dŵr Cymru released sewage into rivers, lakes and the sea around Wales for more than 916,000 hours – about 20% of all hours of discharges across Wales and England.
Commenting, Welsh Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and the Environment, Janet Finch-Saunders MS, said:
“We’ve seen constant headlines about sewage dumping, service disruptions, and rising customer bills, making it unbelievable that the head of Dŵr Cymru can justify his inflated salary as performance-based.
“With Wales facing four times as many sewage discharges proportionally than England, and Dŵr Cymru customers seeing their household water bills increasing to become the highest in England and Wales, such an exorbitant amount of money paid to the individual behind these decisions is a slap in the face to customers.
“The public shouldn’t be forced to cover the costs of inflated salaries and bonuses for water company executives, especially when these companies have failed to address long-standing issues and delayed critical infrastructure upgrades until it’s too late.”
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