The chief executive of the country’s second biggest housebuilder has said he will donate a “substantial” amount of his bonus to charity after coming under pressure from MPs and shareholders.
Jeff Fairburn, chief executive of Persimmon, is in line for one of the largest bonuses in UK corporate history, currently set to be as much as £100 million.
The bonus has been described as “obscene” by politicians and caused both the company’s chairman and the head of the remuneration committee to resign for failing to cap the payout.
The Telegraph reports that Fairburn has failed to subdue the anger felt by shareholders over a £110m payout despite promising to give a “substantial” amount to charity.
Royal London Asset Management said it was still calling on Mr Fairburn to acknowledge the errors in the company’s bonus scheme and “correct them”, adding the problem did not lie with how he spent the money, but the fact that it was awarded in the first place.
Fairburn said he regretted the “controversy” about his bonus awarded under Persimmon’s 2012 long-term incentive plan and would set up a private charitable trust to “benefit wider society over a sustained period of time by supporting, in a very meaningful way, my chosen charities” according to the FT.
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