New figures revealed by the party found that bosses at England’s water and sewerage companies awarded themselves around £27m in bonuses over the past two years. The party’s analysis of Companies House records found that executives at England’s water and sewerage companies were paid £48m in 2020 and 2021, including £27.6m in bonuses, benefits and incentives. This is despite reports that they are allowing 2.4 billion liters of water to leak into England every day. A nationwide drought is likely to be declared this week in England after record dry conditions, with some areas receiving the lowest rainfall on record. Millions of people have been banned so far, with government ministers asking water companies to implement more. Despite these dry conditions and most forecasts in the coming years due to the climate emergency, water companies have committed to halving leaks by 2050. The Lib Dems believe a freeze on bonuses could focus minds and accelerate that goal. Their farm affairs spokesman, Tim Farron, said: “It is outrageous that while millions of people suffer from pipe bans, water company executives are being rewarded with these bonuses despite not even bothering to fix leaks. It begs the question, what on earth have they done to deserve these bonuses? “These are the same executives who let their companies pump raw sewage into our rivers. “Ministers are letting water companies get away with scandal after scandal and the public is sick of it. It’s time someone stood up to these companies and demanded action. That should start with fixing these leaks and then stopping pumping sewage into waterways once and for all.” Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST Many water companies do not have their own leakage reduction targets. Southern and South West Water have both recently missed their targets, while South West Water’s leaks have increased. A spokesperson for Southern Water said: “Tackling the spill is extremely important to our customers and to us. Leakage is falling – and thanks to massive investment and changes in the way we deal with it, [we] we aim to reduce leaks by 15% by 2025, 40% by 2040 and 50% by 2050. Last year we fixed 22,000 leaks and we are currently fixing 250 a week in the area where we have a pipe ban.” South West Water has also been contacted for comment.