There are many explanations offered by housebuilders for why they’re not building enough homes – planning, nimbies, not enough bricks, and not enough brickies.
An unexpected 4.3% fall in construction output in August, revealed on Friday, was blamed partly on skills shortages. Away from the building site, housebuilding bosses are trousering an unprecedented cash bonanza.
Five executives at Berkeley recently shared £42m, with its chief executive, Tony Pidgley, getting £23m. A new scheme for the top five bosses could pay out £500m in the next five years.
Jeff Fairburn, the boss at Persimmon – where 40% of buyers use help-to-buy subsidies – also has a bonus scheme that could pay out £100m by 2021.
Given the cross-party agreement to build more homes, running a housebuilder looks like a licence to print money for the foreseeable future. Couldn’t more of that cash be invested in training brickies, chippies and plasterers, and a bit less on bosses’ pay?
