THE highest-paid director of Stewart Milne Group - understood to be the eponymous executive chairman - received a massive (pounds) 3.7m last year, more than (pounds) 500,000 ahead of Royal Bank of Scotland chief Fred Goodwin.

The Aberdeen housebuilder's (pounds) 71,000-a-week paypacket ranks him at or near the top of Scotland's corporate payscale, adding to a family fortune estimated at over (pounds) 130m.

Stewart Milne's top-paid board member banked a further (pounds) 175,000 in pension contributions, taking his total ''emoluments' to (pounds) 3,852,000 for the 12 months to June 30, up from (pounds) 2,636,000 in 2003.

Goodwin heads a quoted company whose global output is now equivalent to one-quarter of Scotland's entire gross domestic product. But the RBS chief earned comparatively modest basic pay of (pounds) 1.9m in the latest financial year, rising to (pounds) 3.2m with bonus and other benefits.

Stewart Milne's other four directors - group managing director Glenn Allison, group technical director Hugh Mackay, finance director John Irvine and non-executive George Gillon - shared pay of (pounds) 2,254,000. This took the group's total boardroom pay bill to (pounds) 6.3m, a 31% rise on 2003.

The figures reflect a bumper trading year for the construction and timber frame business, which is currently plotting an expansion of its housebuilding arm into England for the first time. Last month the company posted a 20% rise in earnings before interest and tax, to (pounds) 20m.

If the increase in directors' pay is taken into account, underlying profits were higher still, while sales rose 7% to (pounds) 189m, consolidating the north-east company's position as one of Scotland's biggest privately-owned businesses.

Milne is also chairman of Aberdeen FC, in which his company holds a 27% stake. The value of that investment has been written down from (pounds) 1.3m in 2003 to (pounds) 789,000, according to the housebuilder's latest accounts.

Stewart Milne houses are commonplace across Scotland but the group has yet to lock horns with England's housebuilding giants. However, it already has a timber frame production facility near Oxford that will complement this growth strategy and has tentative plans to open a second plant in England.

Allison said last month the company is ''keeping an open mind'' on the ''entry mechanism'' for England, stating that it could come about through a straightforward land purchase, or acquisition, ''or even a combination of the two''.

Milne pointed out that housebuilders trade plots of land, adding that his company could swap part of its healthy Scottish holding to gain a substantial foothold in England. He said he expects the softening in house prices to have some impact on the company by affecting people's confidence to buy new homes.

But he reckons this is counterbalanced by a signific-ant gap between demand for housing and supply, an underprovision which he puts at 25% in Scotland.