THE chairman of York-based Persimmon is to quit the housebuilder after it emerged chief executive Jeff Fairburn is set to receive an “obscene” bonus of more than £100 million.

Nicholas Wrigley is to resign in recognition of his failure to cap the company’s pay scheme, along with remuneration committee chairman Jonathan Davie.

The revelation that the company’s management could share a bonus package, believed to be around £500 million, has rocked investors and been greeted with widespread anger.

Announcing Mr Wrigley and Mr Davie’s departures, Persimmon admitted that the generous payout plan presided over by the duo “could have included a cap”.

The payouts depend on the company’s stock market performance, which has been significantly boosted by the government’s help to buy scheme.

On hearing the news York Central MP Rachael Maskell said: “Government intervention is needed to increase social housing, but the money should help the community.

“There are few winners out of this. There will be a lot of anger in a community like York where the price of a house is 9.5 times the average salary.”

And York-born Lib Dem leader Vince Cable told The Guardian newspaper that the “scale of this bonus is obscene” and built on a “government subsidy”.

“It is reminiscent of the worst excesses of corporate greed that helped to create the financial crisis, when short-termism was heavily incentivised and long-term planning ignored,” he said.

Persimmon said: “The company introduced a Long Term Incentive Plan in 2012 (2012 LTIP). The board believes that the introduction of the 2012 LTIP has been a significant factor in the company’s outstanding performance over this period, led by a strong and talented executive team.

“Nevertheless, Nicholas and Jonathan recognise that the 2012 LTIP could have included a cap. In recognition of this omission, they have therefore tendered their resignations.”

But Persimmon went on to say that since the award scheme was launched, the company has made “substantial cash returns to shareholders at the same time as increasing the size of the business and delivering significant value”.

It added that Persimmon has delivered an increase in the number of new homes supplied and invested £2.9 billion in new land.