Secret life of housing chief
The former chief executive of Persimmon, Jeff Fairburn, and his successor David Jenkinson, will never be able to fully escape the stain of their fat cat bonuses.
After a City row over Fairburn’s original payout of more than £100m, it was reduced to £82m (over two years) and Jenkinson received £43.2m.
The final insult was that a QC-led inquiry into the homes built by the firm found that many were shoddy and some could potentially pose a fire risk.
The uproar which followed Fairburn’s refusal to explain himself in a BBC Look North interview in 2018, when he walked off, sealed his fate and he was encouraged to step down by new chairman Roger Devlin.
In an effort to assuage public anger, there was a promise to give the money to charity.
In the 14 months or so since then, Fairburn and those who speak for him have been asked many times the state of the charity pledge, and he declined to answer even when confronted on his doorstep.
his representatives now say he set up a charitable trust some time ago.
What we still don’t know is how much was funnelled into the trust or the good causes he has embraced. But the secrecy and determination to keep his financial affairs private has been an act of self-harm.
As someone involved in a public good – building homes, often financed by the taxpayer through help To Buy – Fairburn should have recognised that he had given up his right to privacy about his financial rewards. If he had properly explained his bonuses, how they had come about and the way in which the cash is being re-purposed through charitable giving, he could perhaps have avoided becoming such a pin-up for poor governance.
Fairburn’s re-emergence as chief executive of Yorkshire housebuilder Berkeley DeVeer, in which he reportedly has bought a 50pc stake for an undisclosed sum, is also shrouded in mystery. efforts to learn more about his shareholding, and where and how it is held, ended up with a brick wall in the shape of law firm Shoosmiths, which boasts on its website of a commitment to ‘corporate responsibility’.
It is fine that Fairburn is seeking to rebuild his career and reputation in his native Yorkshire. hopefully he has learned lessons from the past. Customers want sturdy, safe and well-built homes, and seeking to escape public scrutiny is a crass error.
King coal
The conversion of Blackrock – the world’s largest investor – to the climate change cause is a good thing.
To all of us watching a climate change sceptic Australian government refusing to change tack while a continent burns, taking no action is not an option.
In his annual letter to CEOS of public companies, Blackrock boss Larry Fink makes it clear those companies which fail to make an effort to deal with their carbon footprint and adopt more sustainable practices risk being ostracised by investors.
As significantly, Blackrock, which has been notoriously shy about how it votes at annual general meetings, is promising more transparency, putting increased pressure on management to focus on the green agenda.
Underlining Fink’s determination that something should be done, he vows to disinvest in firms where 25pc of revenues come from thermal coal.
That is not going to make much difference to UK-quoted miners, as coal production at Anglo American and Glencore is under 10pc of revenues. London-based Rio exited its last coalmine in Australia in March 2018.
The danger is one of unintended consequences. If coal and eventually hydro-carbon assets end up in the hands of private equity and smaller independent producers, there is a serious risk that safety and health standards will weaken.
The same amount of environmental damage will be done and the window on their activities will be firmly shut.
Retail therapy
MUCH weeping and wailing from the Retail Consortium last week about the worst year on record.
The real story is the relentless switch to clicks, with digital sales up from 31.2pc in December 2018 to 34.5pc in 2019.
The exemplar of this is online fashion operator Boohoo, which revealed a stonking 44pc rise in revenue in the last four months of 2019, which sent the share price up another 5pc yesterday. That means a market value of £3.9bn making it worth more than £3.6bn M&S. Tears of joy.