Yorkshire Water and customers would benefit from mayor joining firm's board: The Yorkshire Post says

With Yorkshire Water announcing a new chair in the shape of former Capita chief executive Jonathan Lewis and several other members of the utility company’s current non-executive directors set to depart, the call for one of the region’s mayors to join the organisation’s board comes at an opportune moment.

The call has been made by South Yorkshire mayor Oliver Coppard, who said such an appointment would help improve transparency about the company, opening up access to executive pay, influence, dividends, decisions and scrutiny.

Such a move could prove helpful to the public, who would expect any politician on the board would hold the company’s feet to the fire in terms of delivering an improved service to customers. But it would also potentially be beneficial to the company.

The Yorkshire Post recently conducted an in-depth interview with Yorkshire Water’s much-criticised chief executive Nicola Shaw recently, who sought to give the firm’s customers a better understanding of their long-term plans as it conducts a huge investment programme to replace or improve ageing infrastructure and drive up water quality levels in the process.

Having a high-profile mayor on the board could prove advantageous in helping improving public understanding about the work the company is doing, while the input of an experienced politician able to explain how policies are likely to come across would hopefully prevent major missteps such as the recent PR disaster involving Ms Shaw receiving undisclosed six-figure payments from Yorkshire Water’s offshore parent company.

A mayor on the board wouldn’t solve all the company’s problems but could be a good step in the right direction.