ANGER has erupted over the pay of a Worcester housing charity boss who earns almost 50 per cent more than the Prime Minister after a £16,000 pay rise.

David Bennett, chief executive of Sanctuary Housing, the Castle Street-based charity which manages social housing across the country, earned £288,000 during the 2008/09 financial year – far more than Gordon Brown’s £192,000 salary.

Conservative MPs say housing association bosses should “get back to the real world” after figures revealed they collected, on average, seven per cent pay rises on already hefty salaries last year despite the recession.

The head of Evesham-based Rooftop Housing, Ian Hughes, scooped a 7.7 per cent rise – double that of his staff – and earned £118,000. Festival Housing Group, which owns Elgar and Spa Housing in Malvern, Droitwich and Ledbury, awarded its £120,000-a-year chief Guy Weston a four per cent rise.

Speaking at a housing conference in Birmingham, shadow housing minister Grant Shapps suggested the very highest wages around the country could not be justified.

He said: “The revelation that 10 bosses of these housing charities earn far more than the Prime Minister will shock families facing housing misery.

“In these tough economic times, everyone has a responsibility to show public money is being wisely spent. These social housing bosses will want to ask themselves if these big pay packets are justified.”

However, Sanctuary insists Mr Bennett’s pay is commensurate with the size of his organisation, and says his £16,000 rise was “below the sector average of seven per cent.”

A spokesman said: “Sanctuary is the UK’s largest affordable housing provider, with Mr Bennett overseeing the management of 75,000 accommodation units and employing 5,600 people. The size of the group means Mr Bennett is the fourth-lowest paid chief executive on a pay-per-house basis.”

Rooftop chairman Richard Williams said his chief executive’s 7.7 per cent rise included a bonus following a successful government inspection.

He said: “We’re very fortunate to have Ian Hughes as our group chief executive and it is the board, not he, that awarded his increase.

“3.9 per cent of this was the annual pay rise we awarded all staff to reflect inflation. The bonus was awarded because the Audit Commission had judged Rooftop to be a three-star organisation.”

Worcester Community Housing (WCH) said it gave its chief executive Stewart Mountfield the same 2.5 per cent pay rise as all his staff, and his salary “sits well below the current national average and also below the six-figure mark.”

Mr Mountfield said WCH “has very little in the way of taxpayer funding”.