Property firm Land Securities plans to bring in a clawback policy on bonus and share awards for top executives, to get the money back if company performance fails to hit targets.

The proposed changes follow a review of senior pay after demand for commercial property fell and the firm slimmed its number of executive directors from four to three.

David Rough, remuneration committee chairman, said changed management responsibilities now required a simpler incentive system that was “better aligned to group performance”.

Rough explained: “Rather than make gradual changes over the course of a number of years, the committee commissioned a wholesale review. This gave us the opportunity to address elements of our incentive package, such as the additional bonus and discretionary bonuses, which some shareholders disliked. It has also enabled us to propose the introduction of a clawback mechanism into our incentive schemes.”

The review found that senior reward needed to “move away” from discretionary payments and measures against sector performance benchmarks, towards relative shareholder return and a package that focuses more on the long term.

The new ‘clawback’ authority will allow the firm to claim back overpayments of bonus or an excess vesting of a share award from future rewards.

Under the plans, maximum annual and long term incentives will also be reduced from 500 per cent to 450 per cent of basic salary; discretionary bonuses of up to 50 per cent of basic salary will be removed; and additional bonuses of up to 200 per cent of basic salary will also be dropped.

To balance these cuts in potential incentive earnings, annual bonuses - currently up to 100 per cent of basic salary - will rise to 150 per cent, with amounts above 50 per cent and 100 per cent automatically deferred into shares for one and two years, respectively.

“We believe our proposals will improve the alignment of executives with the interests of long-term shareholders,” Rough added.

“We have been particularly conscious of the current environment for pay in listed companies, closely monitoring the government consultations on executive pay and governance policy statements from our shareholders.”

Shareholders will vote on the plans at a meeting on July 19th, and if approved changes would come into force for the 2012/13 financial year.