Bosses at listed landlords and developers including SEGRO and LondonMetric are set to return to full salaries after taking voluntary pay cuts of at least 20% during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Executives at major real estate companies volunteered to either transfer a percentage of salaries and fees to donate to charitable causes, or reduce their earnings as a cost-saving measure. In many instances, these changes were brought in for a three-month period ending in June.
Among these, SEGRO plans not to extend pay reductions for its board due to end this month, having waived a quarter of salaries and fees for three months to bolster cash for its £10m community fund. LondonMetric, which waived 20% of earnings to donate to charities, will also return salaries to 100%.
Other companies are reviewing their strategies. These include British Land, where directors channelled the proceeds of 20% salary cuts between April and June to its Community Investment Fund; and Capital & Regional, which used a 20% reduction in salary and fees for directors to support employees and communities financially hit by Covid-19.
Several companies have been using pay cuts to preserve cash during the lockdown for an indefinite period. These included retirement homes developer McCarthy & Stone, which set out a 20% decrease in basic salary for its board members from 1 April “until further notice”. Likewise, St Modwen Properties, which cut board pay, fees and bonuses by 20%, has yet to clarify an endpoint for these measures.
Student housing provider Unite, which introduced 30% pay cuts for its directors and a 10%-20% reduction for senior management as part of cost-saving measures, will uphold these for a four-month period ending July.
Companies yet to reveal their plans for reversing executive pay cuts include Landsec, Shaftesbury, U+I, IWG, Town Centre Securities and NewRiver REIT.
The news comes as housebuilders such as Barratt and Persimmon have reverted to full pay for executives, just weeks after bosses volunteered to reduce their salaries.
In many cases the timeframes for these were directly linked to time spent off development sites during the lockdown. These have since resumed construction activities.
To send feedback, e-mail pui-guan.man@egi.co.uk or tweet @PuiGuanM or @estatesgazette
