Welsh Water sewage: firm admits to illegally spilling waste into area home to bottlenose dolphins - who is the CEO?

Welsh Water is being investigated after it admitted to illegally spilling raw sewage into a conservation area which is home to Europe’s largest population of bottlenose dolphins. The boss of the water firm was given a £20,000 pay rise during the period in which the company dumped the waste.

The water firm, which serves three million customers, dumped raw sewage into the River Teifi which flows into Cardigan Bay. An investigation by the BBC found that the company had been illegally discharging untreated wastewater at dozens of sewage plants, often for years at a time. The company admitted that it has 40 to 50 wastewater treatment plants that are currently operating illegally.

The data, from 11 Welsh sewage plants, found that 10 released untreated waste before their stipulated overflow level had been reached, and the worst-performing plant was Cardigan which spilled for more than 200 days a year from 2019 to 2022. The data uncovered by Peter Hammond, a former professor at University College London, showed that Welsh Water spilled raw sewage for a total of 2,274 instances between 2018 and May 2023.

Meanwhile between 2020 and 2022 Peter Perry, Welsh Water’s CEO, received a pay rise to his basic salary of more than £20,000, taking him from £309,000 to £332,000. He said he will waive his bonus for this year but his total remuneration is still expected to increase 17% this year.

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) said on Thursday (19 October) that it would investigate the severity and frequency of the company’s breaches. Welsh Water told the BBC it was already aware of “significant issues” that impacted its ability to treat sewage, and is planning to build a new £20 million water treatment works for Cardigan. The firm added that there had been “no measurable environmental impact” from the Cardigan treatment plant and so it had been treated as low priority.

Here we take a look at who the boss of Welsh Water is - as he takes home huge pay packets while the water firm continues to dump raw sewage into waterways.

Who is the CEO of Welsh Water?

Peter Perry was appointed the CEO of Welsh Water in April 2020, after roles including Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer in the company. He started out as an apprentice at the water company after he left school. Speaking to WalesOnline in February 2021, Perry said: “My family circumstances meant that university wasn’t an option for me, but as soon as I heard about the apprenticeship at Dŵr Cymru I was hooked.”

Perry was appointed Operations Director of Welsh Water in July 2006 and before this was the Chief Operating Officer for United Utilities Operational Services (UUOS) - 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 his early career he worked for South Wales Electricity as Network Services Manager for Wales. As well as being the CEO of Welsh Water he is also the Chair of Business in the Community Cymru, a Member of the Water UK Board and an advisor on the UK Resilience Forum.

He has been slammed for his high pay packages whilst the water company has been found to be illegally dumping raw sewage and is labelled a ‘not for profit’ company. He earned £332,000 in 2022 and that was before a generous pension contribution and bonus payments were added on. On top of his basic salary, he also earned a total of £232,000 in short and long term bonus.