Persimmon rival blasts its pay bonanza

HOUSEBUILDER Persimmon last night came under fire from a major rival over its boss’s £100 million pay package.

Stephen Stone, chief executive of Crest Nicholson, said: ‘This is clearly a negative [for the sector]. It’s mentioned more times than I’m sure my peer group would like.

‘The Persimmon remuneration is massively ahead of what all of the other public companies, particularly in housing, would have been delivering in an executive role.’

Persimmon’s chief executive Jeff Fairburn was in line for more than £100million under his company’s share scheme. After fierce criticism, he chose to forgo £25million worth of shares and will donate an unspecified amount to charity.

Crest Nicholson holds its annual meeting on Thursday, when Stone will be replaced by chief operating officer Patrick Bergin and become executive chairman.

The company suffered a major revolt on its pay report last year, with 58 per cent of votes against the scheme. It faces another row this week.

Crest Nicholson wants Stone – whose total pay for the last year was £2.2million, down from £2.3million – to become executive chairman for a year and then non-executive chairman for up to two years, against governance guidelines.

Shareholder advisory groups Pirc and ISS have urged investors to reject this move. Shareholder Royal London Asset Management plans to vote against, saying a threeyear term would be ‘too long’.

But Stone said: ‘In the main, I would say there has been very active shareholder support.’