Cable to drop annual investor vote on pay Mr Cable had wanted to give shareholders a binding vote on salary and bonus arrangements for top executives every year, but is now said to be considering a vote once every three years, unless companies change pay policies for directors. Currently, pay votes are only advisory, so companies can ignore protest votes. However, in the past few months of the so-called "Shareholder Spring," investors have been showing their displeasure at excessive executive remuneration. Three FTSE chief executives - Andrew Moss at Aviva, David Brennan at AstraZeneca and Sly Bailey at Trinity Mirror - have lost their jobs in recent weeks after rows about poor performance and high pay. Mr Cable told the Sunday Times that the "Shareholder Spring" has been very effective in holding companies to account, saying: "Investors have been able to marshal their resources to target executives who've been abusing their position." However, he cautioned that "if investors have to do that every year with every company on the stock exchange they could get tied up in bureaucracy." Institutional investors had argued that annual vote could have made investors less inclined to protest for fear of destabilising management teams. The "final proposals on executive pay reform will be published within weeks. The "Shareholder Spring" could claim another victim this week when WPP, the advertising giant, faces a vote over Sir Martin Sorrell's near-£13m compensation package. Investors have been urged to vote against his package and in the Sunday Telegraph, Philip Lader, ther WPP chairman, hinted that the package was open to further "deliberations."