Shapps launches fresh assault on pay

On Twitter he has said he is going to be ‘calling on social housing bosses to stop using tenants’ rents to pay themselves enormous salaries’.

He told the Guardian newspaper: ‘At least 10 chief executives are paid more than the prime minister. These are charities. Their tenants may wonder why they are paying rents to support directors on enormous salaries. Just as we’ve taken pay cuts as ministers and published expenses over £500, they need to.’

The speech echoes that given by Mr Shapps at the NHF conference last year, when he was shadow housing minister.

At the time he suggested housing association bosses could face pay cuts if his party was elected to government.

Inside Housing publishes an annual survey of housing association chief executive pay. Last year’s study found pay had risen by 7 per cent despite the recession, with the highest paid chief executive, Anchor Trust’s John Belcher, earning £391,000. Mr Belcher left the organisation in October.

The results of this year’s survey will be published in Inside Housing magazine and online this Friday.