Footsie housebuildling boss pockets £8m

BERKELEY Group’s boss bagged another £8m pay packet last year as the firm continued to rake in profits from the growing property market.

Rob Perrins, who has run the FTSE 100 housebuilder since 2009, received £8.04m for the year to the end of April, most of which was comprised of share awards worth £7.3m under the company’s long-term incentive plan.

The sum was the same as was paid the previous year and takes Perrins total pay since he took over as chief executive to nearly £108m.

But the £8m last year and the year before remains well below previous bumper awards for the 58-year-old, who managed to land his biggest payday in 2017 when he was handed £28m.

The most recent award came after Berkeley reported a profit of £604m for the year to April 30, 2023. This was up 9.5pc from 2022 as its properties remained in high demand despite growing signs of a slowdown in the housing market amid rising interest rates. But the multi-million-pound payday for Perrins ( pictured) is likely to fuel further criticism of executive pay after it emerged over the weekend that Britain’s top hundred boardroom chiefs took home an average £4.2m last year as households across the country struggled to make ends meet.

The Mail on Sunday revealed that the 20 highest-paid FTSE 100 bosses took home almost £170m. Perrins himself just about avoided inclusion into the top ten highestpaid bosses, pipped to the post by the £8.2m handed to Erik Engstrom, chief executive of publishing group Relx.

Topping the table was AstraZeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot, who received £15.3m for his successful leadership of the pharmaceuticals firm.

But Perrins is unlikely to be holding out for a higher payday next year as rising interest rates and a gloomy economic outlook put the brakes on the housing market.

The waning outlook was followed by data yesterday from lender Halifax which revealed house prices had dropped 2.4pc year- on-year in July, the fourth month of declines but slightly better than the 2.6pc fall recorded in June.

Berkeley shares slipped 0.5pc.