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For-profit’s CFO paid more than any housing association CEO

The chief financial officer (CFO) at one of the largest for-profit providers of social housing earned more last year than any housing association chief executive earned in 2019/20, the firm’s latest accounts show.

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Sage Housing’s CFO earned more than any housing association chief executive last year, the for-profit’s accounts show #UKhousing

According to Sage Housing’s accounts for 2020, its highest-paid director earned £441,000 in 2020, which is slightly more than the highest paid housing association CEO earned in 2019/20.

Alison Thain, chair of Sage, told Inside Housing that the figure was in relation to the earnings of Sage’s CFO, John Goodey.

Mr Goodey joined Sage in September 2019 from Welltower Inc, the world’s largest healthcare REIT. Prior to that he spent 18 years as an investment banker at Deutsche Bank and Barclays Capital.

Mr Goodey’s earnings for 2020, which include a bonus but do not include pension contributions, would have put him at the top of Inside Housing’s most recent annual salary survey that ranks the earnings of housing association chief executives.

In 2019/20, Anchor Hanover’s chief executive Jane Ashcroft topped the table with overall earnings of £436,681, including a bonus and a car allowance.

Inside Housing is using the salary survey data from 2019/20 as a comparison because it is the most comprehensive assessment of chief executive pay across the sector. The 2020/21 salary survey is expected later this year.

Sage explained that Mr Goodey’s salary is higher than the CEO’s because Sage had an interim CEO during this period who was being paid via a consultancy, meaning their salary is not included in this section of the firm’s accounts.

On Mr Goodey’s salary, Ms Thain, who was previously chief executive at Thirteen Group, said Sage’s “context is completely different” from housing associations as it also recruits from the real estate sector.

“And of course we have a bonus culture, which has not been evident in the not-for-profit sector in the same way at all, so you will see that reflected in the salaries,” she added.


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Sage’s accounts also show that in 2019 its highest-paid director received £931,000, which Ms Thain confirmed was paid to the organisation’s first CEO, Joe Cook.

Ms Thain said this was because Mr Cook had an uncapped bonus arrangement that was negotiated when he joined the company in 2017, before Sage Housing became a registered provider and the board was in place. Sage no longer has any uncapped bonus arrangements.

While Ms Thain said she would still expect Sage’s CEO to be within the top 10 housing association earnings, the earnings would be closer to £400,000, or “significantly less” if the company performed poorly, she said.

Sage’s accounts for 2020 show that the for-profit delivered 2,162 affordable homes during the period, which is 57% higher than the 1,378 homes it delivered in 2019.

The organisation also exchanged contracts on 4,254 new homes, up 20% from the 3,550 it exchanged on in 2019.

It made an investment of £333m in affordable homes in 2020, up 2% from an investment of £326m in 2019.

Sage’s turnover in 2020 was £94m, up 169% from £35m in 2019. It made a loss of £26m, compared to £28m in 2019.

Since launching in 2018 with funding from private equity giant Blackstone, Sage has been working towards a target of expanding its portfolio to 20,000 homes by 2022.

Ms Thain said the group currently has more than 5,000 homes in management and that it has already signed deals on almost 20,000 homes.

She said Sage will be refreshing its corporate plan in the autumn and “will be looking to flesh out our targets and where we go next”.

Its portfolio is largely made up of Section 106 homes that Sage has acquired from house builders, however Ms Thain said the organisation is also increasingly looking to develop in partnership with housing associations or councils.

In March 2021, it signed a development agreement with Barnet Council, which will see it fund the delivery of 142 affordable homes as part of a regeneration scheme.

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