Carillion bonus payments halted

The Insolvency Service PwC has revealed bosses at collapsed Carillion construction firm have had their bonus payments halted amid growing anger at bumper payouts, with debts of £1.3bn and a £600 m pensions deficit.

A spokesperson said, “ Any bonus payment to directors beyond the liquidation date has been stopped and this includes the severance payments which were being paid to some senior executives who left the company”.

Carillion’s former CEO Richard Howson was handed £15m in salary, bonuses and pension payments as part of his exit deal in 2016, with the company then agreeing to carry on paying him a £600, 000 salary and £28, 000 benefits until October 2018.

Ministers have been left with a bloody nose after the 200-year-old firm Carillion went bust with 450 public sector contract in its books. Thousands of workers on private sector contracts had faced uncertainty about their future when a 48-hour period of support ends on Wednesday.

The company’s facilities and maintenance clients include Nationwide Building Society, which had already said it would continue its contract. That deal allows the receiver PwC to pay about 1, 750 Carillion employees who provide cleaning and maintenance services, through subcontractors, until the end of this month. Several building sites around the country have been deserted since Monday, despite a message from liquidators that people should turn up for work. Most employees were sent home immediately, with subcontractors collecting as many tools and personal possessions as they could, as some feared equipment could be seized and sold by liquidators and others could not find new jobs without their tools.