Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Deloitte boss Richard Houston's pay rose by almost half to 7.1mn last year after the Big Four accounting firm cut jobs and reduced the share of profits it hands to new partners. Houston, who headed the firm's UK business before winning a promotion in June, received a 5.8mn share of profits for the 12 months to May 2026, according to company filings.
He was also paid a 1.3mn one-off award from an incentive plan tied to strategic and financial targets for his work for the firm's wider European operations. The bumper payout came after Deloitte last year cut its UK staff by 1,000 and reduced the number of shares it awards to new equity partners, according to people familiar with the matter. Houston has since vaulted to the top of a new entity overseeing Deloitte's operations in 80 countries since June this year following an ambitious restructuring, which he spearheaded.
The 7.1mn payout to Houston, who led Deloitte UK from 2019, made him the best-paid UK boss in the Big Four. Marco Amitrano, who leads PwC UK and Middle East and holds decision-making power across Europe, was paid 4.8mn in the 12 months to June 2026, for example. Houston's high pay last year was due partly to his position leading a grouping of about 30 of Deloitte's national firms across Europe and the Middle East - a smaller, more loosely co-ordinated precursor to the 80-country structure - said a person close to the firm.
The increased payout meant Houston's remuneration was 93 times Deloitte's median UK employee pay in its most recent financial year, up from 65 times the previous year and 35 times in 2021. He was paid 2.9mn in 2021 and 4.9mn in 2025. The payout puts Houston among the world's best-remunerated consultants.
The highest-paid director at Deloitte Global, the international umbrella entity that sits above all of its national member firms, was paid just under 9mn in 2025. Houston's 45 per cent pay rise in the 2025-26 financial year came as Deloitte's UK and Swiss revenues rose just 2 per cent to 5.81bn, while profits climbed 14 per cent to 899mn. It also followed a review of the firm's UK partnership structure codenamed Project Maple, according to people familiar with the matter.
The overhaul was aimed at redressing the balance between traditional equity partners, who share in the ownership and profits of the business, and the increasingly bloated ranks of salaried partners who are given the partner title without getting a stake in the firm. New Deloitte partners traditionally received 100 units, or shares - an allocation that could rise over time - but this had been changed to 80 units, said two people familiar with the matter. The value of each unit, which fluctuates with the firm's profit, is used alongside individual performance to calculate each individual partner's pay.
The accounting firm aimed to convert more of its hundreds of salaried partners - who hold the title partner but remain employees and do not own a stake in the business - into equity partners, according to an executive, while another person close to the firm said the changes would ensure the majority of its partners would now hold equity in the firm. It comes after a period in which the Big Four have increasingly relied on creating salaried partners as a way of promoting senior staff without expanding the group entitled to a share of their profits. The changes at Deloitte - where equity partners now account for almost 60 per cent of the wider partnership, up from 54 per cent in 2025 - were intended to reassure salaried partners that they had not reached a career dead end and could yet move into the equity partnership, said a second current executive.
The distinction between the two ranks has been a source of tension across the firms.
Source: Financial Times Companies · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing