Had a twinge of conscience, Mr £131m?
Building boss finally agrees to give some of his huge bonus to charity (but he won’t tell us how much)
A BUILDING boss whose huge bonus earned him the nickname ‘Mr £131million’ has vowed to give some of the cash to charity.
Jeff Fairburn is due to pocket 4.8million shares in Persimmon under a deal agreed in 2012.
His firm’s stock market value has rocketed since then, thanks in part to the Government’s Help to Buy subsidy – pushing his stake to £131million at one point.
After weeks of insisting his pay packet was his concern alone, Mr Fairburn bowed to pressure yesterday and agreed to hand over some of it – without saying how much. ‘i recognise and profoundly regret that Persimmon’s strong performance over the last few years is being eclipsed by the controversy surrounding the 2012 award,’ said the 51-year-old.
‘Persimmon’s success as a business and the uncapped nature of the scheme has meant that the value of these awards has become very large.
‘The introduction of the scheme predates my appointment as chief executive and i would like to make it clear that i did not seek these levels of award nor do i consider it right to keep them entirely for myself.’
The married father of three insisted he had always intended to donate some of the money.
He claimed public outrage at his pay bonanza had forced him to make his good intentions public rather than modestly keeping them to himself.
He said: ‘ Once it became apparent that our outperformance would lead to a very significant award for me, i made plans to use a substantial proportion of the total to support the charities that are particularly important to me and my family.
‘But, in what might be considered to be an old-fashioned approach, i believed this was a personal matter and i would be able to do this privately.
‘it’s now clear this belief was misplaced and so i am making my plans public and recognise i should have done so sooner.’
Mr Fairburn said he would set up a private charitable trust to back his favourite causes. He said he would give away a ‘very meaningful’ amount.
campaigners said the pledge was not good enough. stefan stern of the High Pay centre said: ‘ You could argue that £ 200,000 is a “substantial” amount, but that would not make a dent in his bonus.
‘This tells us that shame and embarrassment still matter – he has been shamed into doing it.’
Around 130 bosses at Persim- mon are to share in a £731million payout under a ‘long term incentive plan’.
Finance director Mike Killoran, 56, is in line for 3.4million shares worth around £82million. He is understood to have also agreed to give some of the bonus to charity when he gets it.
The awards created a crisis at Persimmon, with critics claiming its bosses are being rewarded for stoking a housing crisis when prices are sky high and most young people struggle to get on the ladder.
shares in the company have almost tripled in the past five years, although a recent dip means Mr Fairburn’s bonus pot has slipped from £131million to £116million.
Persimmon has cashed in on almost £1billion of taxpayers’ money since the launch of the Help to Buy subsidy in 2013.
The scheme was designed to give young people a leg up by letting them borrow cash directly from the Treasury to use as a deposit for a newbuild.
data obtained under the Freedom of information Act means the Mail can reveal Persimmon has sold 21,533 homes through the scheme. Taxpayers stumped up £943million in loans to buyers of these properties. The average loan size was £43,800.
Russ Mould, of savings group AJ Bell, said: ‘ Taxpayers’ pounds have flooded straight from the Help to Buy scheme and into the builders’ profits.
‘it has stoked demand for houses when demand was already outstripping supply.’
‘Should have done it sooner’