Industry chiefs see salaries soar

New figures show that top chief executives saw their pay packets grow by an inflation-busting 17% last year.

The average boss of a Footsie 100-listed company was paid £1.74m, with the bulk coming from share options, bonuses and other benefits.

The pay survey shows that salary provided only £539,000 of the average chief executive's pay - 12% above 1999's levels.

Total pay rose by 17% despite the plunging stock market, which wiped out the gains of some chief executives altogether.

Sir Ken Morrison, chairman of Bradford-based Morrison's Supermarkets, saw his total pay rise by 510% to £1.26m, more than three times his basic salary.

Other chief executives feeling flush include Charles Brady, of fund manager Amvescap, who was paid £16.4m - an increase of 122%.

Sir Richard Sykes, of GlaxoSmithKline, saw his pay rocket by 77% to £6.8m; while Vodafone's Sir Chris Gent's saw his rise by 29% to £6m.

Peter Fellner, of biotech company Celltech, saw his total pay rise 366% to £6.7m.

But the survey, compiled by SCA Consulting, showed Celltech's investors also had a good year as it was the best performing company in the Footsie 100 - generating a 122% increase in total shareholder return.

But investors in new economy stocks were less fortunate as the tech bubble burst.

BT's shareholder return tumbled by 60.9%, while Colt Telecom's fell 54.6%.

Colt's fall from grace also affected the pay packet of its boss Paul Chisholm, who 'lost' £101m given the impact of the fall on his options.