UNDER fire Persimmon chief executive Jeff Fairburn is to set up a private charity “to benefit wider society over a sustained period of time” after saying he never wanted the colossal £110 million bonus awarded to him in December.

But Mr Fairburn, who has been under sustained pressure since the scale of his award was revealed, gave no definitive details on how much of the bonus he would be giving away.

He indicated that his wish had been to take an “old-fashioned approach” and keep the matter private, but conceded that this notion was misplaced.

Having previously defended the uncapped bonus, Mr Fairburn yesterday issued a statement saying that: “I did not seek these levels of award nor do I consider it right to keep them entirely for myself”.

The announcement was made two weeks before Persimmon reports its final results for 2017.

Mr Fairburn said that the bonus scheme was drawn up before he become chief executive in 2013 and he regretted that the group’s performance has been “eclipsed by the controversy surrounding the 2012 LTIP (long-term incentive plan) award.”

The payout, which could see as much as £500m shared among the management team, comes in the form of share options. In addition to Mr Fairburn’s £110m, Mike Killoran, finance chief, picked up £86m and Dave Jenkinson, group managing director, £48m.

Speaking in January, Mr Fairburn said he had “worked very hard” for the bonus and it had to put “this into context of what has been achieved”.

He termed the bonus “significant”. Others, such as Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable, called it “obscene”. Mr Cable said: “It is reminiscent of the worst excesses of corporate greed that helped to create the financial crisis.”

Pressure was intensifying on Mr Fairburn, with Steve Morgan, chief executive of rival housebuilder Redrow, saying last week that the scale of the bonus was “doing the whole of the industry a complete disservice” and had “peed off” peers.

Striking a conciliatory tone in his statement Mr Fairburn said: “I recognise and profoundly regret that Persimmon’s strong performance over the last few years is being eclipsed by the controversy surrounding the 2012 LTIP award,” said Mr Fairburn.”

He detailed how once it became apparent that the group’s performance would lead to bonuses of this scale, he said he made plans to use a “substantial proportion” of the total to support the charities which were personally important.

“But, in what might be considered to be an old-fashioned approach, I believed that this was a personal matter and that I would be able to do this privately. It’s now clear that this belief was misplaced and so I am making my plans public and recognise that I should have done so sooner.”

In December, Persimmon chairman Nicholas Wrigley and Jonathan Davie, chair of the remuneration committee, resigned after failing to cap an incentive plan which was introduced in 2012 and linked to the growth of the business.

The growth since was fuelled in part by the Government’s Help to Buy scheme, which has helped drive up sales of new homes. The initiative, launched by George Osborne in 2013, sees house buyers take an equity loan from the government of up to 20 per cent of the cost of a new build home, and combining it with a five per cent deposit and 75 per cent mortgage. Scotland has its own help-to-buy scheme which works in the same way but with different thresholds.

Since 2012, Persimmon has grown revenue from £1.7 billion to £3.1bn in 2016 and pre-tax profits from £218m to £775m. Revenue for 2017 is expected to reach £3.4bn.

The bonus was linked to the company’s share price, which has grown from 800p at the end of 2012 to a peak of 2,890p in November 2017. Persimmon shares closed last night at 2,410p.

Mr Fairburn said that he hoped his position was now clarified, adding: “I am proud of what Persimmon has achieved under my tenure and after 28 years’ service there is much more that I still hope to do.”