Embattled Thames Water risked fresh outrage on Monday after it was revealed its finance chief was paid a £1million signing-on fee.

Britain's largest water firm is teetering on the edge of collapse and has warned it could run out of cash by the end of the year.

But at the end of July, the company made a delayed seven-figure payment to Steve Buck, who joined the company in April 2025, Sky News reported.

A Whitehall source told the broadcaster that the payment was revealed last week in a letter sent to MPs on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select by Thames Water's chairman Sir Adrian Montague.

It is understood the money was drawn from an emergency borrowing facility made available by lenders trying to persuade the Government to back a rescue plan for the utility firm.

The £1m signing-on payment came 15 months after Mr Buck joined the company and reportedly followed legal advice taken by Thames Water over its obligations.

The troubled supplier was earlier this year criticised by the Environment Secretary for handing “outrageous” payouts to top bosses after it forked out more than £4 million in bonuses and boosted its chief executive pay to £1.2 million.

The water firm – which is struggling under a £21 billion debt pile – revealed in its annual report that bonuses of £4.09 million were paid to “key management personnel” as part of its so-called management retention plan.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has signalled that failing firms providing essential services will be nationalised.

The London and Valley Water consortium - a group of investors engaged in a rescue bid for Thames Water - have hired legal specialists to prepare for a court fight with the Government if it forcibly attempts to bring the struggling company into public ownership.

The group collectively hold £17 billion of Thames Water's debt and has proposed a £10billion deal to take control of Thames Water.

It comes as more than 25 million people have restrictions on water use, the Environment Agency said, with millions under hosepipe bans, including all South East Water and Thames Water customers.

Another record is set to tumble this week after Sunday was the 34th day so far this year when temperatures exceeded 30C somewhere in the UK, equalling the record from 1995.

So far, the extreme weather of summer 2026 has included two record-breaking heatwaves in May and June that led to more than 2,800 excess deaths.

Two more in July, the driest July in England and Wales since records began in 1836, have fuelled drought and wildfires.

The European Union’s earth observation programme Copernicus said average temperatures across western Europe reached 21.61C (70.92F) for June-July, breaking the record set in 2022.

Globally, this year is just behind 2024 and 2025 as the third hottest year on record.