Stewart Milne enjoyed a thumping 70% increase in pay and pension contributions, taking his total package to (pounds) 2.6m in the year to June as his eponymous building company cashed in on soaring house prices.

The latest Companies House filing for Aberdeen-based Stewart Milne Group reveals his brother Hamish was paid nearly (pounds) 2m for his holding in the company in a deal which valued the owner's 95% stake at (pounds) 32m.

The massive pay increase takes Milne into the same earnings league as Fred Goodwin who earned pay and benefits of (pounds) 2,580,000, excluding pension contributions and share options, last year as chief executive of the much bigger Royal Bank of Scotland.

In a year when the boardroom pay bill at Milne soared 48% to (pounds) 4.8m departing dir-ector Gordon Cochrane got (pounds) 590,000 compensation when he resigned from the company.

The bonanza enjoyed by Milne could be followed by a further increase this year as, with no sign of a downturn in demand for new homes, the company looks forward to another hike in profits.

While shareholders have revolted over huge executive pay increases at some listed companies in recent months, Milne was able to take advantage of his controlling holding to award himself an eye-watering pay-out without facing objections.

Although the company stuck with its policy of not paying a dividend - despite a 65% increase in pre-tax profits to a record (pounds) 14m - Milne's pay and benefits as chairman and chief executive increased from (pounds) 1,416,000 to (pounds) 2,461,000. Contributions to his company pension scheme rose 25% to (pounds) 158,000.

Milne Group paid (pounds) 1.92m to buy 12,000 shares held by Hamish Milne, who left to pursue other interests two years ago, last July. External specialists valued each share at (pounds) 160. As the housing market has continued to boom since last year and Stewart Milne's 202,400 shares would bring control of a substantial com-pany, the value of his stake could have increased substantially since last summer.

The leap in pay and benefits gave Milne, whose company has a 26.8% stake in Aberdeen football club, total rewards in line with David Murray, with whom he shares a passion for soccer. In the year to end January, Murray, whose interests range from metals to owning Rangers football club, saw his total pay and benefits soar from (pounds) 878,000 to (pounds) 2,599,000.

Jim, Marjorie, and Joe Walker, the three siblings who own Walkers Shortbread, last year shared (pounds) 5.6m in total pay and benefits, a 33% rise on 2001. They also received dividends totalling (pounds) 1.9m, up from (pounds) 1.7m.

Glen Allison, managing director of Milne Group, which has 880 employees, said the steep increase in its owner's rewards was justified by the record trading performance.

As well as benefiting from sharp increases in house prices the profit growth, and 18% increase in turnover, to (pounds) 177m, followed years of work to expand Milne outside its historic north-eastern heartlands into the central belt of

Scotland.

The company had built a substantial land bank which, together with a growing timber frame manufacturing business in England, would support continued earnings growth if the housing market remained strong.