Hitting the jackpot as the remainder endure: Fats cat financial institution and power bosses rake in stellar income as hard-hit households battle cost-of-living squeeze

High bosses whose companies have fuelled the cost-of-living disaster – akin to banks, power companies and supermarkets – have raked in additional than £100 million in pay and perks, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

An unique evaluation of salaries and bonuses given to FTSE 100 Index chief executives reveals they proceed to money in excessively – regardless of their clients battling spiralling meals, gas and mortgage payments.

The findings expose a disturbing divide between multi-millionaire enterprise chiefs – a few of whom have benefited from taxpayer-funded subsidies – and hard-pressed households weathering the most important squeeze on family funds for 40 years.

Tory MP and former Minister Andrew Percy final evening condemned the ‘obscene’ pay hikes and warned massive companies to not ‘act like vultures’.

‘High firm bosses have each proper to earn a good wage for prime jobs,’ he mentioned. ‘However they do not have the precise to money in and act like vultures at a time when many households are struggling to make ends meet.

An unique evaluation of salaries and bonuses given to FTSE 100 Index chief executives reveals they proceed to money in excessively – regardless of their clients battling spiralling meals, gas and mortgage payments

Tory MP and former Minister Andrew Percy final evening condemned the ‘obscene’ pay hikes and warned massive companies to not ‘act like vultures’

‘That is very true of sectors which have profited throughout the cost-of-living disaster. A few of these reported pay hikes are frankly obscene and I am not the one Tory MP to suppose that.’

Our evaluation centres on bosses who run companies that offer important items and providers, akin to fuel, electrical energy, petrol and meals.

Previously 12 months, their clients have been hit by a double-whammy – rates of interest rising to five.25 per cent and inflation presently at 7.9 per cent. 

This has not solely resulted in worth hikes in outlets and on utility payments, however steep will increase in mortgage funds, which increase income for banks and their bosses.

Many Britons have been notably affected by the large soar in power costs – despite the fact that households have been spared the complete affect because of a Authorities cap that restricted the associated fee for typical family utilization to £2,500 a 12 months.

Regardless of this, the 2 best-paid bosses of companies included in our evaluation have been on the prime of oil and fuel giants BP and Shell.

BP’s Bernard Looney and Shell’s former chief Ben van Beurden each made round £10 million every final 12 months, with Looney seeing his pay rise by 122 per cent and Van Beurden by 54 per cent.

On the identical time, motorists and small companies needed to pay much more for his or her gas.

A latest investigation by the competitors watchdog discovered drivers paid an additional £3.30 to fill a petroleum tank each time on the pumps final 12 months as firms swelled revenue margins.

Neville White, of funding firm EdenTree, condemned the out-of-kilter pay awards, saying that bloated rewards for executives are ‘out of contact’.

He added that, ‘in the principle’, such rewards have been because of ‘persistently excessive commodity costs relatively than particular person efficiency’. 

BP’s Bernard Looney (pictured) and Shell’s former chief Ben van Beurden each made round £10 million every final 12 months

Looney noticed his pay rise by 122 per cent and Van Beurden (pictured) by 54 per cent

As households grappled with power costs, the worth of meals additionally soared practically 17 per cent final 12 months, figures from the Workplace for Nationwide Statistics present.

However whereas many consumers at Tesco, Britain’s largest grocery store, may have been compelled to tighten their belts, its chief govt Ken Murphy took residence £4.4 million, our evaluation reveals.

It might take the typical employee at considered one of his shops nearly 200 years to earn that sum.

Murphy’s pay included £102,000 to assist him commute from his household residence in Eire to the super-market’s head workplace in Welwyn Backyard Metropolis, Hertfordshire. That deal got here to an finish in March.

Sainsbury’s boss Simon Roberts loved a 36 per cent enhance in his rewards final 12 months, taking his package deal to £4.9 million.

Sainsbury’s tried to defend its boss’s pay whereas denying it was profiteering.

‘We make 3p on each pound we promote,’ chairman Martin Scicluna not too long ago informed shareholders. ‘If we provided you one thing for £1, and I mentioned I made 3p on that product, I do not suppose you’d name us a rip-off service provider or a profiteer, however some MPs have.’

At on-line grocer Ocado, boss Tim Steiner made a comparatively modest £2 million final 12 months. Nonetheless, he has taken residence round £90 million in his 13 years as chief govt, regardless of his firm not too long ago reporting a file annual lack of greater than £500 million.

Supermarkets function extremely amongst firms within the FTSE 100 Index, with a large disparity in pay between boardroom and store flooring.

Andrew Speke, of the Excessive Pay Centre, which displays boardroom pay offers, mentioned firms ought to assist their lowest-paid workers ‘relatively than splurging a lot on their highest earner’.

Client items big Unilever has additionally been beneath fireplace for big will increase within the worth of a few of its merchandise in addition to its over-the-top pay. Greater than half of its shareholders revolted this 12 months over govt rewards. 

Sainsbury’s boss Simon Roberts loved a 36 per cent enhance in his rewards final 12 months, taking his package deal to £4.9 million

Former boss Alan Jope obtained a complete of £4.6 million final 12 months earlier than retiring after he botched a takeover bid. The corporate needs at hand his successor an excellent larger primary wage.

Unilever has been criticised for burnishing its ‘woke’ credentials and for ‘greedflation’ – pushing up costs by greater than vital beneath the quilt of inflation.

A Mail on Sunday investigation earlier this 12 months discovered that the worth of a few of its items, akin to Hellmann’s Mayonnaise, had soared, at that time by greater than 40 per cent.

Households who’ve suffered main nervousness about their fuel and electrical energy payments can even be livid to study that the boss handed the most important pay rise was Chris O’Shea at Centrica, the mother or father firm of British Gasoline.

He made £4.5 million final 12 months –5 instances greater than in 2021, when he declined a bonus, saying it will be ‘mistaken’ to just accept one ‘given the hardships confronted by clients’.

Former Unilever boss Alan Jope (pictured) obtained a complete of £4.6 million final 12 months earlier than retiring after he botched a takeover bid. The corporate needs at hand his successor an excellent larger primary wage

Households who’ve suffered main nervousness about their fuel and electrical energy payments can even be livid to study that the boss handed the most important pay rise was Chris O’Shea (pictured) at Centrica, the mother or father firm of British Gasoline

Such altruism appears to have worn skinny and he determined to just accept a bulging pay packet final 12 months – despite the fact that many purchasers have been nonetheless grappling with big payments.

Centrica not too long ago reported file first-half income of just about £1 billion thanks partly to heavy taxpayer subsidies of power payments.

Conservative peer and former Pensions Minister Ros Altmann mentioned: ‘Plainly the bosses of firms whose efficiency has been considerably boosted by Authorities measures are being personally rewarded for doing effectively courtesy of taxpayer assist. 

‘High bosses ought to exhibit restraint and acknowledge the advantages their companies have obtained from coverage interventions.’

Tory MP Alexander Stafford added: ‘It is just proper that folks on the prime of enterprise are paid effectively for what are essential and aggravating jobs.

‘However that ought to by no means be an excuse for enterprise leaders to whack up their pay at a time when abnormal households are struggling.

‘There’s nothing un-Conservative about asking firm executives to point out a bit of little bit of restraint.’

Labour MP Kevan Jones mentioned: ‘It is simply not acceptable for fats cats to be getting such massive will increase when hard-pressed households are actually up towards it. I feel that loads of these prime firm executives have been incomes a small fortune even earlier than these type of large rises.

‘They actually aren’t dwelling in the actual world.

‘Fairly just a few ought to be taking an extended, arduous look within the mirror and asking themselves: can I justify this pay hike?’ Motorists who’ve needed to pay way more on the petrol pumps would possibly look on in envy at John Pettigrew, chief govt of Nationwide Grid, who took residence £7.3 million final 12 months.

His perks included the usage of a automotive and driver – costing the power transmission agency £43,500 – on prime of his £12,000 firm automotive allowance.

In an earlier controversy, Pettigrew claimed £500,000 to maneuver residence from Leamington Spa to London in 2019.

Dame Alison Rose (pictured) of NatWest was paid £5.2 million earlier than being compelled to give up over her dealing with of the choice to shut Nigel Farage’s accounts at its Coutts arm

Water firms have additionally come beneath shut scrutiny for dumping big quantities of untreated sewage into rivers and failing to cease leaks.

That did not forestall the bosses of Severn Trent and United Utilities – the 2 largest water companies on the inventory market – from receiving greater than £3 million. Banks have additionally been within the dock for failing to cross on latest price rises to savers whereas piling on mortgage distress for hundreds of thousands of house owners.

The ruse has enabled banks to publish massive income – and to pay their executives giant bonuses. Bosses at HSBC, Barclays and Commonplace Chartered all made greater than £5 million final 12 months.

The CEO of Lloyds was the bottom paid on £3.8 million.

Dame Alison Rose of NatWest was paid £5.2 million earlier than being compelled to give up over her dealing with of the choice to shut Nigel Farage’s accounts at its Coutts arm.

The scale of any payoff that she could in future obtain is determined by the end result of a probe into the fiasco.