Anglian Water chief executive Peter Simpson has again been named among the UK’s top business leaders to work for, by employee review site Glassdoor.

Mr Simpson came in at number 12 in the website’s poll – down from the number one spot he achieved last year.

Mr Simpson had to steer his company through the Beast from the East, which froze the pipes of hundreds of customers and caused bursts on the network, requiring a major response from their operational and customer service teams.

Recent months have also seen Anglian Water topping the water industry league table for customer service, consulting with hundreds of thousands of customers about their next five-year investment plan through their H2O Let’s Go roadshow, launching the UK’s first ever green bond to attract investment for low carbon projects, publishing plans for a new strategic water grid for the region and unveiling a strategy for ridding the East of problem plastics by 2030.

But earlier this month, Union chiefs at GMB hit out at Mr Simpson’s pay packet which was £1.5m in 2017, at a time when household water bills have continued to rise.

Mr Simpson said: “It has been a tough year with a lot of challenges for us to step up to, but I am immensely proud of the work we have done on bringing the issue of wellbeing to the forefront of business leaders’ minds as well as the strides we have made towards reducing the amount of plastic waste in our environment.

“To each and every person who has worked on these projects, and the many others who have kept the region’s water and sewerage networks flowing 24 hours a day, seven days a week, I would like to say a heartfelt thank you.”