Environment Secretary pressures water boss to refuse rise doubling salary

Southern Water's chief executive should refuse a pay rise that almost doubled his income to £1.4million, the Environment Secretary has said. Steve Reed told the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg that Lawrence Gosden's £691,000 salary increase was 'outrageous' and implored the company to 'think about how this looks to their customers'. It comes amid a furious row over the pay and bonuses enjoyed by executives at water utilities which oversaw huge spikes in sewage leaks last year. The number of serious pollution incidents caused by water firms rose by 60 per cent in just 12 months, the Environment Agency revealed.