Water company bosses are quick to pat themselves on the back over “excellent” and “thriving” bathing spots in their area.

But when The i Paper invited the chief executives from England’s nine main water firms to join us swimming in one – every single one of them declined the offer.

In fact, many have become mysteriously difficult to get hold of.

We were flexible about timing and location. Surely the water execs weren’t worried about the idea of swimming in their firm’s own sewage?

As part of our Save Britain’s Rivers campaign, The i Paper has been calling on the government to create 100 clean river bathing spots across the country by 2030 – with stricter water quality testing to clean up waterways for swimmers.

Progress is being made: there are now 22 official bathing spots in rivers in Britain. However, most of these sites are still not safe for swimming. Of the 15 undergoing regular monitoring, just three have passed water quality testing.

‘He absolutely would… but he’s too busy’

There are more than 600 official bathing sites in the UK, although the vast majority of them are coastal.

Two-thirds (66 per cent) are rated excellent, while 21 per cent are good, 6 per cent sufficient and 7 per cent poor. Of those 32 “poor” sites, 12 are in rivers.

This is despite CEOs publicly praising the state of their own bathing waters. In response to criticism of sewage spills in Lake Windermere, Louise Beardmore, CEO of United Utilities (£870,000 salary), told MPs last year that the lake has four “excellent” swim spots and a “thriving bathing community”.

But when we asked if Beardmore fancied a swim herself, we were told she “is not available”.

A week after our original deadline, the water firm’s publicity team eventually offered to send “another senior member” of the company in her place.

This unfortunate colleague’s identity remains unknown.

Lawrence Gosden, CEO of Southern Water (£518,000 salary), told the same environment committee hearing that bathing waters in his area have improved “drastically” over the past 30 years.

However, when we offered Gosden the chance to join us for a dip, a member of Southern Water’s media relations team said we should speak to the Environment Agency (EA), which is responsible for testing bathing sites, instead.

Other CEOs were equally reticent about our invitation.

“He can’t accommodate time for this,” a Thames Water representative said on behalf of CEO Chris Weston, who received a £1m pay package in 2024-25 despite overseeing a 34 per cent rise in pollution. “He’s too busy with day-to-day work of the company,” they added.

Severn Trent insisted CEO James Jesic (£740,000 salary) “absolutely would take part in river activities”, and is a regular kayaker. “However… ” – yes, the timing just wasn’t quite right. “He’s focused right now on running the business.”

It was a similar story with South West Water’s newly-appointed CEO Keith Haslett. After repeated calls we were eventually told: “Unfortunately Keith will be unable to join for the swim.”

Others seemed not to want to discuss our invitation at all. After several days of unanswered calls, Northumbrian Water finally told us: “I can certainly have a look into that for you.” Like the customers of UK water firms who are sick of sewage being illegally dumped in our waterways… we are still waiting.

After repeated calls, Yorkshire Water and Anglian Water – whose CEOs Nicola Shaw and Mark Thurston each command pay packets of more than £1m – insisted we would need to send emails and they could consider the request. Despite repeated emails, we never received a reply.

The CEOs of water companies have faced intense scrutiny over large pay packets while overseeing firms that pollute UK waterways with illegal sewage dumping.

The regulator Ofwat has moved to block bonuses being paid to CEOs of polluting firms. However water companies have often worked around this by giving “retention payments”.

For example, Thurston, of Anglian Water, received a £500,000 retention payment last year in addition to his salary of £593,000 and over £700,000 in payments from Anglian Water’s parent company, bringing his total payment last year to £1.9m.

How water companies responded

After only two firms – Southern Water and Wessex Water – responded to our original email invitation, we followed up with phone calls to each company … in some cases repeatedly over several fruitless weeks.

Here’s what they said:

CEO Mark Thurston, £593,000 salary plus £1.27m for retention and other payment.

The firm has described rivers as “the lifeblood of our communities” and vowed to “create more opportunities for everyone to enjoy our region’s rivers”.

Did they accept our invitation? No response to numerous calls.

CEO Heidi Mottram, £768,457 salary, plus £300,000 retention payment.

Mottram previously praised the North East as “having some of the highest standards for water bathing quality”.

Did they accept our invitation? “I can certainly have a look into that for you,” said a representative following repeated calls. We are still waiting.

CEO James Jesic, joined in January 2026 and still received £740,700 in 2025-26.

The firm says its rivers are “already wonderful places to be” and that “people and wildlife can both benefit from the work we’ve done”.

Did they accept our invitation? We were told Jesic “absolutely would take part in river activities”, but “he’s focused right now on running the business”.

CEO Keith Haslett, salary unavailable because new to role.

The firm has described “the beautiful blue waters of the South West” as “the region’s pride and joy”.

Did they accept our invitation? “Unfortunately Keith will be unable to join for the swim,” we were told.

CEO Lawrence Gosden, £518,162 salary.

The firm says its region is “home to the South East’s most loved coastal destinations” and it is helping to “protect and improve your bathing waters”.

Did they accept our invitation? Told us to speak to the Environment Agency.

CEO Chris Weston, £875,500 salary plus £99,210 deferred bonus.

The firm says it wants the region’s rivers to be “wonderful places… running clear and teeming with life – natural beauty spots for people to relax and enjoy”.

Did they accept our invitation? “He can’t accommodate time for this,” a spokesperson said on Weston’s behalf.

CEO Louise Beardmore, £870,000 salary plus £1.53m in bonus and retention payments.

Beardmore said her region has “excellent” swimming spots and a “thriving bathing community”.

Did they accept our invitation? We were told Beardmore “is not available”, before later being offered an unnamed colleague to join us in her place.

CEO Ruth Jefferson, £670,000 salary.

“Enjoy your river, it’s cleaner than it’s ever been, it’s going to get cleaner,” said Matt Wheeldon, Wessex Water’s director of infrastructure, last month.

Did they accept our offer? Told us to speak to speak to the Environment Agency.

CEO Nicola Shaw, £642,000 salary plus £660,000 payment from shareholders.

The firm says it has “bathing water to boast about”, adding: “Thriving coastal resorts and local communities rely on clean bathing water.”

Did they accept our invitation? No response to numerous calls.

*Salary figures for 2025-26 and does not include pension or benefit payments.

The bathing spot downstream from six sewage pipes

Many organisations bear responsibility for the poor state of our wild swimming spots. The Environment Agency (EA) is charged with monitoring water quality and the farming industry is also a source of pollution.

However, water companies were responsible for more than 145,000 sewage spills at bathing sites in 2025. In last month’s heatwave, firms discharged untreated sewage at 43 different bathing sites for a total of 99 hours, according to Surfers Against Sewage, at a time when thousands flocked to their local beach or rivers.

Community groups that have obtained bathing water status agreed it was helping to clean up their rivers, but that progress is “frustratingly” slow.

In December 2020, a stretch of the River Wharfe in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, became the first official river bathing spot in Britain.

A stretch of the River Nidd at Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, was designated as an official bathing spot two years ago, but currently has a rating of “poor”.

Testing over the past two bathing seasons has found high levels of bacteria such as E. coli and intestinal enterococci, which are present in human and animal faeces.

David Clayden, chair of the Nidd Action Group, said there are six combined sewer overflows (CSOs) upstream from the site that discharge untreated sewage into the water.

He said gaining bathing water status has pressured Yorkshire Water to take some action. “They have done a lot of work, and they are in the process of planning further work, but it’s not going to happen overnight. It’s a five- or 10-year project to get it improved,” he said.

Despite the pollution, the site remains popular for swimming.

“They’re in there most days, especially in the summer. They’re trying to keep their mouth shut, they’re trying to wash their hands, but of course some people get ill,” Clayden said.

Miles Cameron, bathing water manager at Yorkshire Water, said it was investing £10m across all storm overflows within 5km of the bathing spot and £7.5m to reduce the amount of phosphorous going into the river.

“These are complicated infrastructure projects which take time to deliver, but will greatly improve our impact on the river once complete,” he said.

Bathing site in summer… sewage dumping site in winter

Louise Tonkin is part of a group of residents living around Fordingbridge in the New Forest that gained bathing water status for a stretch of the River Avon.

“This is the way we can get the river cleaned up, because once it’s tested, then you’ve got the data a) to keep people safer and b) to hit the water companies with,” Tonkin said.

Since gaining bathing status in 2024, the EA and Wessex Water have identified that high levels of E. coli at the site are largely down to animal waste, rather than human sewage.

However, Tonkin is frustrated that water quality is only being assessed during the official bathing season that runs from May to September, despite people swimming there year-round.

She said another major source of pollution is a combined sewer overflow 200 metres upstream that “operated continuously” between the end of January and start of March this year.

The problem is worse in winter, when groundwater levels are high, which means it doesn’t emerge in the bathing water testing.

Tonkin said she thinks gaining bathing water status for the site has put “pressure” on Wessex Water to bring forward its investment plans, but reducing sewage is a “mammoth problem”.

A spokesperson for Wessex Water said: “Our licensed storm overflow operated as designed during the wet winter to prevent flooding in Fordingbridge.

“We’re upgrading our sewer network in the area to help prevent groundwater infiltration and delivering near real-time river water quality information.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “We are undertaking targeted action at all ‘poor’ bathing waters and joining forces with local partners to improve the water quality.”