Nationwide Is the 'Lionel Messi of building societies' truly worth £7m?

It has been a career-defining summer for Debbie Crosbie.

- Kalyeena Makortoff

It has been a career-defining summer for Debbie Crosbie. Three years after taking over as the chief executive of Nationwide Building Society, the straight-talking Glaswegian has become a darling of the Labour government: awarded a damehood, namechecked in the chancellor's Mansion House speech and hailed for furthering a Labour party manifesto promise to double the size of the mutuals sector.

But outside Westminster's warm embrace, a storm has been brewing. A 43% increase to Crosbie's maximum pay package, worth up to £7m a year, is due to be rubber-stamped without a binding vote by members, in effect sidelining any opposition at Nationwide's annual shareholder meeting on Friday.

It has prompted outrage among campaigners who say it is the latest sign that the 140-year-old building society is losing its way.

Those critics believe Nationwide, which was founded in 1884 in south London as the Southern Co-operative Permanent Building Society, has deviated from its roots.

Although owned by its members, it bought Virgin Money for £2.9bn last year without asking for their approval and critics claim it is centralising power at the top while diluting the voice of its members. But the industry is backing Crosbie, recognising the 55-year-old former TSB boss's role in pulling the sector into the political limelight.

"The truth is that mutuals have often been seen as niche: a 'nice to have but not essential'," says Peter Hunt, the founder of UK-based mutuals consultancy Mutuo.

Now industry bosses are hosted at No 10 summer garden parties and asked to join a government-run Mutual and Cooperative Sector Business Council. This autumn, ministers will launch a consultation on how to double the size of the sector, in line with Labour's manifesto promise. This kind of state-level attention, Hunt says, "has moved the dial".