539 TOWN HALL FAT CATS RAKE IN MORE THAN PM
As council tax rockets for millions ...
THE number of town hall bosses paid more than the Prime Minister has soared – as households are hit by huge council tax rises.
A damning audit today reveals 539 council staff took home at least £150,000 in pay and other benefits in 2015/16.
This was 53 more than the year before – a rise of 11 per cent.
The TaxPayers’ Alliance report also found 2,314 council employees were on £100,000 or more – up 89 on the previous year. The reve- lations come as millions of families face big increases in their council tax bills, purportedly to help meet the funding crisis in social care.
Last night critics asked why councils were not curbing ‘frivolous’ executive salaries rather than cutting frontline services or putting up household bills. Lib
Dem communities spokesman Baroness Pinnock said: ‘Some of these pay rises are absolutely shameless.’
Ministers last night repeated a demand that town halls should think twice about imposing ‘excessive pay rises’ when public finances are under such pressure.
In 2015, a Daily Mail investigation exposed the scale of fat cat council pay, but it appears little has changed.
Today’s study found the highest-paid official was Dave Smith, who left as Sunderland chief executive weeks after a damning Ofsted report. He took home £625,570 in 2015/16.
The research ranked officials on their total remuneration packages, including pension contributions. The figures include pay- offs to people who were made redundant or did not leave voluntarily. They often receive hundreds of thousands in extra employers’ pension contributions to make up for the amount they would have received had they not lost their job.
A total of 539 took home more than £150,000. Theresa May earns £150,402 a year. There were 68 councils with at least ten staff getting more than £100,000.
Several of the highest-paid walked into new jobs months after huge pay- offs. John van de Laarschot was made redundant as Stoke- on-Trent chief in 2015, with a leaving package of more than £350,000. Seven months later he became chief executive of Nottingham College.
The TaxPayers’ Alliance said its figure of 2,314 for the total receiving more than £100,000 was ‘ likely to be an understatement’ because of disparities in the way councils present data.
The campaign group’s John O’Connell said: ‘ The average council tax bill has gone up by more than £900 over the last 20 years and spending has gone through the roof.
‘Disappointingly, many local authorities are responding through further tax rises and reducing services … There are talented people in the public sector who are trying to deliver more for less, but the sheer scale of these packages raises serious questions about efficiency and priorities.’
At least a third of town halls put up council tax bills by the maximum 5 per cent this month – the equivalent of an extra £80 for the average household. Many are also planning to raise fees such as parking charges. Baroness Pinnock said: ‘These people are costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds each.
‘The size of the pay rises being shown here suggests a frivolous approach to budgeting. You have to question the thinking behind these excesses.’ Claire Kober, of the Local Government Association, said councils were ‘committed to providing value for money’.
She added that senior pay is set by ‘elected councillors and is open to a high level of scrutiny and democratic accountability as a result’. A Department for Communities and Local Government spokesman said it was a matter for local authorities but that ministers expect councils to show ‘ restraint from excessive pay rises’.