Featured Post from Aston University

UK executives at companies who received Covid support saw bigger pay increases – new research

Draft

4 min

Tom Mills


  • The report shows executives at FTSE 350 companies that accepted government support during the pandemic have been receiving larger pay increases than other companies.
  • It found few UK Government Covid support schemes contained restrictions on executive pay or capital distributions to shareholders.
  • Experts say the report raises important questions about the redistributive effects of government subsidies.


New research from Aston University and the University of Sheffield has found that executives at FTSE 350 companies that accepted government support during the pandemic have been receiving larger increases in executive pay than other companies.


The research also found that few UK Government Covid support schemes contained restrictions on executive pay or capital distributions to shareholders such as dividends and share buybacks. Furthermore, those restrictions that did apply were limited, subject to exemptions and characterised by weak enforcement.


Experts say although the UK government's financial support to businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic was widely justified as necessary to protect jobs and livelihoods and to ease the financial burden for businesses and the population, they suggest that this may not tell the whole story and raises important questions about the redistributive effects of government subsidies.


The report by Aston University’s Centre for Health and Society and Sheffield University Management School reveals that in many cases companies that received and did not repay grants under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) made large profits and then awarded executives large pay rises and paid out large sums in dividends to shareholders.


For example, five companies that furloughed employees in 2020/21 generated £6.5 billion in profits in that year, while the five highest dividend-paying companies that held on to CJRS grants received in 2020/21 paid out £1.3 billion to shareholders in that year. Additionally, a significant portion of the shareholdings of these companies are owned by overseas investors.


The report highlights a similar pattern with Business Rates Relief, which covered companies in the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors. Just five companies that accepted business rates relief in 2020/21 generated a total of almost £5 billion in profits (EBITDA), while the five highest dividend paying companies that accepted the relief in 2020/21 together paid out £540 million to shareholders in that year.


Dr Gary Fooks, from the Centre for Healthy and Society at Aston University, said:


“The government's financial support to businesses during the pandemic played an important role in mitigating its economic impacts .


“However, as the report shows, there is a need to examine the redistributive effects of such support and ensure that it’s not siphoned off to support outsized executive pay packets or to reward company owners.


“The effective absence of restrictions on executive pay, shareholder dividends, and share buybacks in government support schemes like CJRS essentially gave companies the power to determine their own priorities, often resulting in significant pay-outs to executives and shareholders.


“The lack of restrictions (on executive pay and capital distributions to shareholders) raises important questions about who decides where the line between private gain and public benefit should be drawn. Poor scheme design has allowed less scrupulous companies to enrich owners and senior executives with public money.”


“We’re calling for government supports to companies to be conditional on restraint of executive pay and capital distributions to shareholders, a commitment to paying a fair effective rate of UK corporation tax, and 'fair-pay plans', which seek to reduce the gap between high and low earners within companies. These are all sensible recommendations that take account of the deep reliance of companies on government support, which we’re likely to see more of moving forward.”


Dr Tom Mills, a lecturer in sociology and policy at Aston University and co-author of the report, said:


“In a narrow sense, our findings underline the importance of policymakers attaching clear conditions to government support on executive pay and capital distributions to shareholders, with appropriate transparency enforcement mechanisms.


“However, they also raise bigger questions about the relationship between corporations and society, and the potential role that government assistance, grants, and public procurement can play in ensuring companies and our broader economy are managed in the long-term interests of society.”


Dr Killian Mullan, a lecturer in sociology and policy at Aston University and co-author of the report, said:


“The pandemic highlighted the underlying reliance of UK businesses on government support, which socialised business risks and, ultimately, underwrote corporate profits.


“However, although the scale of pandemic-related support was exceptional, 'corporate welfare' generally is the norm. Many UK companies owe their success to it in one form or another.


“It is, therefore, imperative that companies, in turn, seek to act in the wider public interest.”


You can read a summary of the findings in an associated Policy Brief (accessed here) and Executive Summary (assessed here). The full report, Who Gained, who Lost? The Distributional Impact of COVID-19 Government Support for Business, can be accessed here. An interactive dashboard of showing which companies received supports by value can be accessed here.

Connect with:
Tom Mills

Tom Mills

Lecturer in Sociology and Policy

Tom Mills is a sociologist with an interest in media and communications, elite institutions and networks, and the use of digital methods.

Corporate PowerElitesBBC ImpartialitySociologyMedia Communications

You might also like...

Check out some other posts from Aston University

3 min

Aston University research: Parents should encourage structure and independence around food to support children’s healthy eating

Dr Katie Edwards studied the feeding practices of parents of children with ‘avid’ eating traits, which can lead to obesity Focusing on health or deciding when it is time for a meal or snack helps parents to use supportive feeding practices. Supportive feeding practices could include involving children in decisions about food, or sitting together for mealtimes New research from Aston University has shone a light on the best ways for parents to encourage healthy eating in their children. The team of academics from Aston University’s School of Psychology, led by Professor Jacqueline Blissett, with Dr Katie Edwards as the lead researcher, looked at the meal- and snack-time practices of parents of children with ‘avid’ eating behaviours. ‘Avid’ eaters, who make up around 20% of children, particularly love food, are often hungry and will eat in response to food cues in the environment and their emotions, not just when they are hungry. They are the most susceptible to obesity and therefore encouraging a healthy, balanced diet is vital. Feeding children with avid eating behaviours can be challenging and the researchers wanted to understand how factors in everyday life, such as parent mood or eating situations, influence the feeding practices that parents use. Understanding this can help to create better support for families around meal and snack times and reduce the risk of children developing obesity. Dr Edwards says that the research shows that when parents prioritise children’s health or decide when it is time for a meal or snack, parents are more likely to use supportive feeding practices which create structure around meal or snack times or encourage children to be independent with their food choices. For example, parents could sit and eat with their children, choose what food is available for their children, or involve children in decisions about what food to eat. She adds that there are three main things that parents can do to help encourage healthy eating behaviour. The first is to focus on health, by providing nutritious and balanced meals. The second is to ensure a calm and positive atmosphere during eating occasions. The final recommendation is that parents should take the lead on setting meal- and snack-times, with a good structure being three meals and two snacks a day. These recommendations are linked to parents’ use of supportive feeding practices which are known to encourage children’s healthy eating. To carry out the research, the team recruited parents of children aged 3-5 with avid eating behaviour and asked them to download an app to their smartphones. The app sent four semi-random reminders per day for a 10-day period, asking them to complete a survey with information about mood and stress levels. Every time a child had a meal or a snack, or asked for food, parents completed another survey to give information about feeding practices (including those which give children structure, or independence, around food), mealtime goals (such as prioritising healthy eating), and information about the mealtime setting (such as the atmosphere). Previous research from this team at Aston University identified four main eating traits in children. As well as ‘avid’, the other traits, not studied here, are ‘typical’ eaters, who have no extreme behaviours, ‘avoidant’ eaters, who are extremely fussy, and ‘emotional’ eaters, who eat in response to emotions but do not necessarily enjoy food in the way that avid eaters do. Dr Edwards was also involved in the team’s research at Aston University that showed that parents’ eating behaviour influences that of their children. Dr Edwards said: “Given the challenges that parents may face and the risk of childhood obesity, we will use these findings to develop feeding support for families. Encouraging parents to use feeding practices which provide structure around meal and snack times, or promote children’s independence with food, could be helpful for supporting children’s healthy eating. Read the full paper in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity at https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-025-01768-x.

3 min

Aston University optometrist develops app with the best easy blinking exercises to improve dry eye symptoms

Dry eye disease is a common condition affecting one-third of the adult population and one-in-five children Professor James Wolffsohn researched the most effective blinking exercises to reduce discomfort, involving a close-squeeze-blink cycle He developed the MyDryEye app in collaboration with Alec Kingsnorth and Mark Nattriss to help sufferers An Aston University optometrist, Professor James Wolffsohn, has determined an optimum blinking exercise routine for people suffering with dry eye disease, and has developed a new app, MyDryEye, to help them complete the routine to ease their symptoms. Dry eye disease is a common condition which affects one-third of the adult population and one-in-five children, in which the eyes either do not make enough tears, or produce only poor-quality tears. It causes the eyes to become uncomfortable, with gritty- or itchy-feeling eyes, watery eyes and short-term blurred vision. It is more common in older adults and can be exacerbated by factors including dry air caused by air conditioning, dust, windy conditions, screen use and incomplete blinks, where the eye does not fully close. Professor Wolffsohn is head of Aston University’s School of Optometry and a specialist in dry eye disease. While it has long been known that blinking exercises can ease the symptoms of dry eye disease, the optimum technique, number of repetitions and necessary repeats per day are unclear. Professor Wolffsohn set out to determine the best exercises. His team found that the best technique for a dry eye blinking exercise is a close-squeeze-blink cycle, repeated 15 times, three times per day. Participants found that while they were doing their exercises symptom severity and frequency decreased, and the number of incomplete blinks decreased. Within two weeks of stopping the exercises, their symptoms returned to normal levels, showing the efficacy of the exercises. To carry out the work, Professor Wolffsohn’s team ran two studies. For the first, they recruited 98 participants, who were assessed for dry eye symptoms before and after the two weeks of blinking exercises. Participants were randomly allocated different blinking exercises to determine the most effective. A second study with 28 people measured the efficacy of the blinking exercise. Once the optimum blinking routine had been developed, Professor Wolffsohn worked withAlec Kingsnorth, an engineer and former Aston undergraduate and PhD student, and Mark Nattriss, business manager of his spin-out company, Wolffsohn Research Ltd, to develop the app, MyDryEye, which is freely available on Android and iOS operating systems. The app allows users to monitor their dry eye symptoms, assess their risk factors, add treatment reminders and monitor their compliance, complete the science-based blink exercises and find a specialist near them. Professor Wolffsohn says that the blinking exercises should be carried out as part of a treatment programme which could also include the use of lipid-based artificial tears, omega-3 supplements and warm compresses. Professor Wolffsohn said: “This research confirmed that blink exercises can be a way of overcoming the bad habit of only partially closing our eyes during a blink, that we develop when using digital devices. The research demonstrated that the most effective way to do the exercises is three times a day, 15 repeats of close, squeeze shut and reopen – just three minutes in total out of your busy lifestyle. To make it easier, we have made our MyDryEye app freely available on iOS and Android so you can choose when you want to be reminded to do the exercises and for this to map your progress and how it affects your symptoms.” Read the full paper, ‘Optimisation of Blinking Exercises for Dry Eye Disease’, in Contact Lens and Anterior Eye at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clae.2025.102453.

2 min

Aston University researchers to take the first steps to find out if AI can help policymakers make urban mobility more sustainable

Researchers to explore how AI can help urban mobility planners They are to investigate AI-driven policy tools’ potential to create greener cities Project to benefit from expertise of five European universities. A European group of researchers led by Aston University is taking the first steps to explore how AI can help urban mobility planners. As city populations grow causing strain on resources, the experts are to investigate AI-driven policy tools’ potential to create greener cities. The team have received £10,000 in funding from the British Academy which they hope will set them on the road to further research. Taking part in the project will be experts from University College London, Ruralis University in Norway, the University of Turin, Italy and Lisbon University Institute, Portugal. Dr Dalila Ribaudo from the Centre for Business Prosperity at Aston Business School and Dr Alina Patelli from the Aston Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research and Application will co-lead a UK-EU consortium consolidation project. The interdisciplinary project will benefit from expertise in applied business and specialist insight into global economics, policymaking and urban transport planning. Dr Patelli said “Policymakers and society could all benefit from our research into innovative ways of managing the strain on urban infrastructures and resources. "The AI-powered policy tools we are developing are meant to support decision managers at all levels of urban governance with reducing emissions, optimising transportation as well as predicting and preventing environmental hazards. Such changes would improve the quality of life for the millions of people living in towns and cities across the UK, Europe and, in the long term, the entire world.” Following the successful bid for the British Academy pump priming grant the team will apply for Horizon Europe funding to continue developing impactful AI-driven policy tools for greener cities.

View all posts
Powered by