黑洞社区

Persimmon has said it is cutting the controversial bonuses it handed out to its top executives after coming under fierce criticism from shareholders, politicians and rival firms.

The country鈥檚 second biggest housebuilder, which is due to announce its 2017 results on Tuesday, first drew up its long-term incentive plan back in 2012.

But the scheme attracted criticism after a rising property market and the government鈥檚 Help to Buy scheme helped revenue and profit surge at the firm 鈥� increasing directors鈥� entitlements.

Last month, the former head of the civil service and a past chief executive of the Homes and Communities Agency, Lord Kerslake, told 黑洞社区 Help to Buy needed reforming if housebuilding executives continue to be seen personally profiting from it.

He added: 鈥淗elp to Buy needs to be more targeted; the government needs to expect more. This may mean making it conditional on caps on excessive bonuses.鈥�

Now Persimmon chief executive Jeff Fairburn has agreed to hand back around 拢30m of his potential 拢110m bonus, while chief financial officer Mike Killoran will give back 拢24m of his 拢78m payout. Group managing director Dave Jenkinson will give back 拢2.5m of 拢40m. All three will have their future payouts capped at 拢29 per share.

Persimmon鈥檚 remuneration committee said it 鈥渇ully supported鈥� the pay reductions although the board defended the bonus scheme saying it had been a 鈥渟ignificant factor鈥� in the company鈥檚 鈥渙utstanding performance鈥�.

But it added that in the absence of a cap on maximum pay, the scheme had led to pay-outs which were 鈥渟ignificantly larger and paid earlier than might reasonably have been expected at the time the scheme was originally put to shareholders鈥�.

Earlier this month, Steve Morgan, the boss of rival housebuilder, Redrow, said Persimmon鈥檚 planned bonus payments were 鈥渧ery, very wrong鈥� while yesterday Persimmon鈥檚 sixth largest shareholder Aberdeen Standard Investments said Fairburn鈥檚 bonus was 鈥済rossly excessive鈥�.