Time to tackle executive pay

The government's plans to tackle unfair lettings fees is a good start, says Merryn Somerset Webb. Now let's move on to executive pay.

The consensus view on Philip Hammond's Autumn Statement is that it wasn't very interesting. But the consensus may be wrong. To see why, consider something he dropped in aroundthe middle (when most people had stopped listening).

"We believe that a market economy is the best way of delivering sustained prosperity to the British people," he said. "We will always support a market-led approach; but we will not be afraid to intervene where there is evidence of market failure." He then went on to announce that the letting fees charged to UK tenants are an example of market failure and abolished them.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.