The highest-paid director at housebuilder and commercial property developer Walker Group has lopped more than £1m off his pay package in a year that saw the company's turnover and profits plunge.

According to Walker's latest accounts, obtained by The Herald from Companies House, the Edinburgh-based family company made pre-tax profits of £12.8m for the year to the end of September 2007, dramatically down from £27.2m the year before.

Turnover also dipped to £44.8m, compared with £80.6m last time - although, the company noted the comparisons are distorted by the sale of a major property in Glasgow's International Financial Services District in 2006.

The operation is majority-controlled by Mike Walker, the firm's founder and chairman, and his son, Bruce. The highest-paid director, assumed to be Mike Walker, earned £830,000, down from £1.9m the year before.

In spite of the fall in turnover, operating profit after excluding the multi-million pound contribution from the sale 200 Broomielaw in the heart of Glasgow's IFSD in 2006 continued to improve, the company said.

Walker said the improvement was largely the result of "continued growth in the price of new housing, a focus on controlling build costs and improved margins resulting from the mix of units sold".

Walker recorded an operating profit of £11.7m, down from £27.6m the year before - without stripping out the gain from the IFSD building sale.

The firm also noted that the number of development sites remained steady throughout the year, and that the average price of homes sold in 2007 climbed to £216,000 from £197,000 the year before.