Persimmon poaches National Express boss

PERSIMMON has poached the long-running chief executive of National Express as it tries to repair its reputation following a fat cat pay scandal.

Dean Finch (pictured), 53, will take over from David Jenkinson towards the end of this year after a decade-long stint at the train and coach group.

Jenkinson announced in February he planned to leave Britain’s most profitable housebuilder, just 15 months after he had taken up the role.

It came shortly after a damning report criticised the quality of Persimmon’s homes, saying there was a ‘need for a fundamental change in Persimmon’s culture’ to ensure it built good houses and took better care of customers.

But, by hiring an outsider for the top job, Persimmon hopes to draw a line under a damaging row about mammoth bonuses.

In 2018 then-chief executive Jeff Fairburn quit following outrage that he had earned £85m over just two years thanks in part to a huge bonus scheme.

In the same two-year period when Jenkinson, 52, was managing director, he took home £45m – after which he promptly bought an £800,000 pub called Shambles in his home town in Northumberland.

FTSE 100-listed Persimmon’s share price had rocketed over several years as the Government’s Help to Buy scheme boosted sales.

In 2019 it raked in profits of £1.04bn, around £65,650 on each of the 15,855 homes it sold.

In the wake of the bumper payout scandal, Finch’s pay will come under close scrutiny when he takes up his role later this year.

Persimmon said a large proportion of his pay will be based on metrics unrelated to the firm’s finances, such as quality and customer care.

He will receive a base salary of £725,000 a year and will be eligible to earn up to £3.7m in total annually, based on a pension allowance, cash bonuses of up to 200pc of his salary and long-term share awards based on 200pc of his salary.

Finch will also be given some stock to compensate him for some of the money he will give up by leaving National Express, where he earned £3.7m last year.

While there, Finch more than doubled the company’s share price but the coronavirus outbreak has erased those gains. Although he has never worked in the building industry, Persimmon chairman Roger Devlin said Finch was a ‘great fit’.

Persimmon is operating at about two-thirds capacity after shutting construction sites in March.

Yesterday, its shares fell 4.4pc, or 103p, to 2259p, while National Express fell 6pc, or 14.2p, to 221p.

÷ Around 130 jobs – 13pc of the workforce – are being axed at housebuilder Crest Nicholson, as profits are expected to fall by more than 70pc.