THE boss of Scotland's largest housing association has received a bumper pay boost of more than 10 per cent, taking his salary to more than £200,000.
Martin Armstrong is chief executive of the Wheatley Group, the parent company of Glasgow Housing Association. He has been given the sixth-largest pay increase of any chief executive among the 100 largest housing associations in Britain.
Figures published by industry publication Inside Housing reveal that, after the increase, he was paid a basic salary of £210,346, with an extra £5,348 as a car allowance. A further £40,596 was paid by his employer over the course of the year in pension contributions.
Mr Armstrong's salary dwarfs the sums paid to the First Minister and the Prime Minister, who each get salaries of around £140,000 a year. The chief executive of Scotland's largest health board, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, is paid £163,000 a year and is responsible for 38,000 staff and the health of 1.2 million people.
Mr Armstrong, who was appointed to the post in 2009 and had seen only a small pay increase over the previous three years, is responsible for one of the largest organisations of its kind in the UK, managing 71,000 homes across central Scotland and providing services to over 100,000 people.
He is highly regarded in the industry, and has been credited with repairing a previously difficult relationship with Glasgow City Council.
His basic salary equates to around £3 for each home his organisation is responsible for, making him proportionally the second-lowest paid of the housing chiefs. However, one senior figure in the social housing sector questioned the size of the pay rise, saying it was too much.
"He took over an organisation in a mess, he turned it around and is now taking over other associations," the source said. "He also has a difficult political balancing act dealing with Glasgow City Council and the Scottish Government. But there is an issue of getting more than the person running the country.
"If he got a 10 per cent increase then that's down to the hard work of others within his organisation and not him alone. Everyone in GHA didn't get 10 per cent.
"And if you are not sensitive to the gulf between what you earn in a quasi-public sector job and what those who live in the properties you manage earn, perhaps you should head to London to make your shed loads of money."
Local campaigners hit out at the pay rise. Sean Clerkin, chair of the Glasgow Homeowners Campaign, said: "It's scandalous when tenants are struggling. It just goes to show the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer."
Pay at the Wheatley Group is set by the organisation's Remuneration, Appointment and Appraisal Group, chaired by group chairman Alastair Dempster. A Wheatley Group spokesman said: "A number of factors were taken into consideration including, notably, the fact his salary had increased by a total of two per cent over the previous three-year period."
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