Directors at Thames Water have been handed massive bonuses - as the company digs up huge swathes of London.

More than 580 separate roadworks in 200 streets are under way, leading to traffic chaos, diversions, delays and loss of trade for local businesses.

At the same time, bonuses for directors have increased by almost 500 per cent to a record £1.4 million. The biggest increase went to chief executive David Owens who got £661,900 on top of his base salary of £150,100, taking his total package to £822,800.

Former finance director Simon Batey was awarded a £416,800 bonus, making his total remuneration £573,300, while chief operating officer Steven Shine got a £192,600 bonus. The current chief financial officer Mark Braithwaite received a bonus of £130,700. Boardroom pay at Thames Water has soared since it was taken over by Australian private equity firm Macquarie in October 2006 .

Critics described the pay rises as "cheeky" at a time when customers are being saddled with above inflation increases in water bills and traffic is disrupted by the massive programme of Victorian mains pipe replacement.

The payments dwarf previous bonuses paid to Thames Water bosses. Newly published accounts said the bonuses "aimed to reward significant improvement in the company's financial performance".

Last month Thames revealed that its profits have risen by a third to £590 million, while investment is up 28 per cent at almost £1billion.

Bills for Thames Water's eight million customers went up by almost six per cent in April.

Green Party London Assembly member Jenny Jones said: "I think it is pretty cheeky to put bonuses up by this much at this time. I think the money should go into replacing more water mains and helping people install meters. There is just no excuse in these times of the credit crunch for huge bonuses." Thames Water said: "The salaries for our top people are slightly lower than for comparable companies but the opportunity for bonuses is higher. We are much more target driven now with better incentives for improving financial and operational performance.

"Last year a lot of bonuses were not paid because the directors did an appalling job. Since then the operational indicators have really, really improved, so we we would argue that these bonuses are highly justifiable."

• The top three directors at Network Rail are to get annual bonuses in excess of £200,000 each, with chief executive Iain Coucher getting £305,000.

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