Blatant Greed
THE unknown chairman, Robert Evans of British Gas, has at last got himself on the map. His BG pay rise is supposed to be based on performance. If so, it implies that he performs three or four times better than his formidable predecessor, Sir Denis Rooke, I doubt it. British Gas is Sir Denis's monument, for it was privatised in his image, by Peter Walker, who now by the oddest coincidence is a director of British Gas and will have assented to the chairman's pay rise. The right treatment for directors' salaries is to make them subject to shareholders' approval, and I was glad to see Lord Vinson press that point on the Department of Trade and Industry. The right treatment for British Gas starts by recognising that it is a nationalised industry in private hands, buying gas, trebling the price, and selling it to us. Ministers now hope to treat that by regulation and by customer charter. The word that seems to be escaping them is competition. Now comes an even heftier rise for the chairman of National Power. Can these chaps be trying to insure them- selves against the consequences of a Labour government? Perish the self- fulfilling prophecy.
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