Executive pay at FTSE 250 companies is beginning to be reigned in, according to research carried out by Deloitte on remuneration at the UK's top 250 businesses, with only the very largest companies breaking the trend.

The firm found that pay and bonus payment increases across the listed companies, particularly for those in the finance and property industries, were lower than last year.

According to the results, the median pay rise was 3%, but almost a third (30%) of businesses provided no increase at all and of those that did, 46% improved pay conditions for executives by less than 5% - compared to 41% in 2011.

Mitul Shah, partner in the remuneration team at Deloitte said: 'Directors' remuneration is generally debated in response to the potentially high levels of remuneration in the UK's very biggest companies. We should remember that this only applies to a relatively small number of companies. Our research shows that remuneration in the mid 250 companies is lower, structures tend to be less complex and practices are more diverse than in larger companies.

'There are some positive trends emerging. Salary increases are slightly lower than last year and bonus payouts are less. We have seen significantly smaller payouts from long term plans in the last two years than previous years. Our research suggests that the link between pay and performance in FTSE 250 companies is improving,' Shah added.

Although over half (57%) of finance and property companies have given no salary increase in 2012 compared with 24% of industrial and manufacturing companies and 19% of retail and service companies, such companies did offer higher potential bonuses with a median of 150% of salary compared to the rest of the FTSE 250 at 100%.