Deloitte's record fee income rise

DELOITTE & TOUCHE, the UK arm of the international accounting and consulting firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, today reports the highest rise in annual fees in its 100-year history.

John Roques, who is standing down as senior partner and chief executive in favour of John Connolly (pictured), presented the 27.3 per cent increase in income, to pounds 563.2m, as a vindication of the firm's policy of avoiding the mergers and other reorganisations that have been a feature of the accountancy profession in the past year.

Mr Roques, who has reached the partners' retirement age of 60 after nine years of leading the firm, said: "We concluded a year ago that major mergers among the then Big Six were not in the interests of our clients, our people and the profession. Our focus has continued to be firmly on our clients, and we believe that this played a major part in our most successful year to date."

Mr Connolly said that "all business divisions had experienced excellent growth in generally buoyant markets".