Northern Rock said on Tuesday that Ann Godbehere, its recently departed chief financial officer, received £173,000 on top of her annual £786,000 salary to fly to and from her home in Switzerland. This made her the highest paid director at the government-rescued mortgage bank with remuneration of £959,000.

The admission came as the state-owned lender revealed figures showing that about a third of Northern Rock’s borrowers – roughly 170,000 people – were in negative equity. If house prices fall by about the 15 per cent predicted this year, up to half of its mortgage loans could be in negative equity.