The housebuilder Berkeley Group’s founder and chairman, Tony Pidgley, has earned £174m over the past decade, and is set to be paid another £48m by the company over the next five years, which will make him one of the highest paid bosses of a public company in Britain.
His pay package has attracted the anger of politicians and housing campaigners as an investigation by the Guardian and Finance Uncovered reveals that the company has reduced its affordable housing obligations in the overwhelming majority of its London developments.
While for years Berkeley has successfully persuaded planning authorities that it could not make a profit from its developments if it met affordable housing targets, it has raked in £2.9bn of profit over the past seven years.
