Council officer was paid £420,000 in single year
ABIRMINGHAM City Council employee received over £420,000 in one year – putting them among the highest paid local government staff in the country, according to a study.
A total of 19 staff at Birmingham City Council also received more than £2.7 million between them for the year – with the authority ranking top in the wider West Midlands for numbers of staff paid over £100,000.
The figures were published in the city council’s statement of accounts for 2019/20 but highlighted in the TaxPayers’ Alliance’s (TPA) Town Hall Rich List.
The TPA document includes a list of “highest remunerated local authority employees” for 2019/20 – in which Birmingham’s acting strategic director of strategic services came sixth in the UK.
The list includes not only salary, but other remuneration such as pension contributions and compensation for loss of office.
The council officer received £420,902 that year when their post was deleted – including £305,692 in pension contributions and £87,031 in compensation for loss of office.
Meanwhile, the city’s public health director came fourth in the TPA’s list of highest remunerated employees by expenses received for the same year.
The office received £17,434 in expenses that year, which the council
has said relates to a “one-off payment” for relocation expenses occurred due to a move from London to Birmingham.
The statement published by the council shows “other” council employees – besides senior roles with stated job titles – earning more than £100,000 decreased from 11 to eight between 2018/19 and 2019/20.
Councillor Meirion Jenkins (Con, Sutton Mere Green), shadow cabinet member for finance and resources, said: “The Labour administration in Birmingham have allowed the cost of operating local government in the city to spiral out of control.
“Not only are the full-time senior officers paid salaries well north of £100,000 that most hard-working people in Birmingham could only dream of, but Labour’s inability to attract and retain permanent senior staff has led to eye watering costs when it comes to the use of interims in senior positions.
“Moreover, departing senior staff have enjoyed huge pay-offs, often involving a most troubling lack of transparency – with officers even refusing to provide information to members of the audit committee.”
A spokesman for the Local Government Association, a national organisation representing councils across England, said: “It is important that the right people with the right skills and experience are retained to deliver this important work. Senior pay is always decided by democratically elected councillors in an open way.”