£450k a year university boss gets £18k expenses for bills at rent-free flat
A UNIVERSITY boss on a £451,000 salary claimed more than £18,000 in expenses for her free home – including £8,000 for laundry, figures show.
Professor Dame Glynis Breakwell, who is the highest paid vice-chancellor in the country, has her utilities and council tax paid for by her employers.
Bath University provides her free accommodation in a large Georgian town house bought for £1.6million in 2002, a year after Dame Glynis took up her role.
Ironing
She has a housekeeper who is “responsible for the bed linen in her private apartment, including washing and ironing”.
A Freedom of Information request found the university has spent £8,224 on housekeeping and laundry at her home in the last year.
It also spent £1,286 on electricity, £3,848 on gas, £390 on water and sewerage, £3,082 on council tax, £279 on cleaning and £1,844 on estate charges. Local councillor Joe Rayment said it was a “staggering inequality” that Dame Glynis pays no home living costs.
“While ordinary working people in this city have seen rent and bills rise at a much faster rate than their wages, Glynis Breakwell has seen her salary skyrocket and her rent and bills stay static at £0,” he said.
Bristol East MP Kerry McCarthy, Bristol North West MP Darren Jones, Stroud MP David Drew and Andrew Murrison, MP for South-west Wiltshire, all recently quit roles at the university in protest at her pay.
The latest figures are a reduction on the previous year when Dame Glynis claimed £20,016 in expenses, including £2 for biscuits.
Mr Rayment said: “It’s time for the University of Bath to put an end to this staggering inequality. I repeat my calls today for Glynis Breakwell to resign.”
Universities Minister Jo Johnson said that if university bosses want “the wages of footballers” they are “simply in the wrong business”.
He told the Universities UK conference at Brunel University: “When it comes to vice-chancellor remuneration, finding the right benchmarks is essential.”
A Bath university spokesman said some of the costs were incurred because the flat Dame Glynis lives in is also used to host university events.
Her contract says she must live there.