Moya Greene will repay £250,000 perk to buy a house after Vince Cable said he would have vetoed it She picked up £399,000 in a "short-term incentive plan," £127,000 in benefits and £200,000 in lieu of a pension as she is not a member of a final salary pension scheme. The overall figure also included a controversial payment of £250,000 to help Miss Green buy a house in London in April last year. The perk was signed off by the company's remuneration committee in October 2011, but only appeared in the company's accounts this year. Government sources said that ministers only became aware of last month, when Royal Mail submitted the draft wording for the company's 2012/13 remuneration report. Business secretary Vince Cable made clear he would not have approved the figure, and Miss Greene has now agreed to repay the sum, which is £120,000 after tax.. Donald Brydon, the Royal Mail chairman, has now apologised for agreeing the perk, and for not clearing it with ministers. Miss Greene has now agreed to repay the capital and any capital gain to date will be by the end of this financial year. The chairman is sorry; the payment is being returned. Chuka Umunna MP, Labour's Shadow Business Secretary, said: "The £250,000 housing perk the Royal Mail board gave its CEO - nearly 10 times the average salary - will be totally unfathomable to its customers. The decision to award this housing assistance in the first place is surprising and calls into question the judgement of the Royal Mail's Board. Ian Murray MP, Labour's shadow postal affairs minister, said he was writing to Royal Mail to seek guarantees that the company had not offered cash to other senior Royal Mail executives to help them buy properties. A Royal Mail spokesman said Miss Greene's pay was justified because the company's performance had been "transformed" under her leadership. She said that the company had gone from having "going concern" issues in 2010/11 to reporting positive free cash flow of £334 million in 2012/13. The annual accounts stated that £250,000 payment was "exceptional" to reflect "the chief executive's relocation and commitment to the UK" and "the difference in residential costs between the UK and Canada." It added: "The chief executive was not involved in the decision nor does she engage with Government about payments made by the company." Separately, Post Office Limited, which runs Britain's network of 11,500 post offices, disclosed that its chief executive Paula Vennells saw her total pay increase by nearly 50 per cent. Miss Vennells total pay was £697,000, including a salary of £250,000, £62,500 in lieu of a pension and bonuses worth £375,000. Last year she was paid a total of £463,000. Post Office Limited also unveiled its accounts for 2012/13, showing an increase in operating profits from £61million to £94million, on revenue of £1.02billion. George Thomson, General Secretary of the National Federation of Sub-Postmasters, said the figures contrasted with low pay for subpostmasters. He said Post Office Limited had tried "justify management bonus payments through reducing pay to the very people who run our post offices." A Post Office spokesman said: "The basic salary has remained the same, however this year's remuneration included the payment of a three year Long Term Incentive Plan. The salaries and incentive plans paid to our Executive Committee reflect that the Post Office is a large and complex organisation which needs to attract and retain the best people to help shape and deliver the strategy of leading the Post Office through the next important phase of its development.