ABERDEEN Standard Investments has launched a damning attack on Persimmon chief Jeff Fairburn, saying the role of a chief executive “requires motivation that goes beyond simply amassing a fortune”.

Investors showed their disapproval over Mr Fairburn’s £110m bonus, with two-thirds failing to back a resolution on pay at the group’s annual meeting in York yesterday.

The Edinburgh-based investment giant, which owns 2.3 per cent of Permission, was one of a number of institutional investors to vote against the company’s remuneration report at yesterday’s annual meeting.

The resolution scraped through with the backing of just 36% of investors, while 64% either voted against the resolution or abstained. Abstentions meant the vote passed with 52% of votes cast.

The move comes amid ongoing controversy over Mr Fairburn’s bonus, which he later reduced to £75m.

And the company also faced calls at the meeting to pay a real living wage, after Strathclyde Pension Fund, which manages the pensions of Glasgow City Council staff, and government workplace pension scheme Nest, demanded action.

Ahead of the remuneration vote, interim chairman Nigel Mills apologised “unreservedly” for the bonus payouts, which came from the company’s uncapped 2012 long-term incentive plan (LTIP), which underestimated the scale of growth in the value of housebuilders. He later said “we must now look to put this issue behind us”.

The company has faced criticism because its exposure to the Government’s Help to Buy initiative has helped it drive enormous sales volumes in the intervening years.

Mr Mills, who stepped up when Nicholas Wrigley was forced to stand down in the wake of the scandal, said the group’s performance had been overshadowed by the outrage over the bonuses.

But Euan Stirling, head of stewardship at Aberdeen Standard Investments, said: “While we do appreciate the concessions made by the chief executive, the reduction in the amount accruing to him… does not even get close to acceptable.”

He added: “Regardless of any moral or societal duties, company directors have a legal responsibility to act in the best long-term interests of the company that employs them,” said Mr Stirling. “Today’s remuneration results suggest that the executive directors at Persimmon have lost sight of that.

Mr Stirling went on to say that: “the long-term success of the company is being endangered by the reputational damage associated with grossly excessive pay”.

While he praised the recent success of the executive team, he added: “Being a company director, and in particular a chief executive, requires more. It requires a broader context. It requires a personal motivation that goes beyond simply amassing a fortune. It requires an understanding of where the company sits within the society within which it operates. Little of that is evident currently at Persimmon.”

A petition signed by more than 5,500 people was delivered to the board calling for it to meet Living Wage Foundation accreditation, which would see staff paid a minimum of £8.75 per hour, rising to £10.20 in London.

The current National Living Wage is £7.83 per hour for those over 25 years old.

Both Nest and the Strathclyde Pension Fund are part of the Shareaction coalition, which is lobbying Persimmon to pay its staff more. The group highlighted that Mr Fairburn’s bonus could support 4,100 full-time staff at the Living Wage rate.

“That sort of inequality is indefensible,” said Clem McCulloch, AGM activist at ShareAction.

“Persimmon relies on the hard work of its builders and yet it’s the executives who profit. It’s positive news to see the company’s investors speaking out for fair pay across the board.”