Tackling soaring salaries and severance packages among senior executives will be a priority for the Housing Corporation’s new chief executive.
In his first interview since taking on the position full-time last Tuesday, Jon Rouse said he would address housing association chief executives’ pay and severance deals in the next nine months.

Rouse himself took the corporation job for £25,000 less than he was offered: he will earn £125,000 a year.

He said he chose a lower salary to stave off possible charges of hypocrisy when the corporation moved to tackle executives’ excessive pay.

“I felt it wasn’t credible to take a strong lead on that issue if I wasn’t willing to take the same approach myself,” he said. “We should remember that the money we’re paid effectively comes from tenants’ rents – some of the most vulnerable people in society.”

Rouse’s comments follow a series of large payments to chief executives. These included a £230,000 salary including pension and a relocation payment for the managing director of Sanctuary Housing Association in 2002/3 and a “golden goodbye” of £233,000 for the chief executive of Downland Housing Group.

An Incubon survey for Housing Today in March found that the average salary for the chief executives of the top 20 biggest registered social landlords was £129,000.

Source

Housing Today