Council fat cats handed goodbyes of up to £450k

COUNCIL fat cats are receiving golden goodbyes of more than £ 150,000 despite legislation which is supposed to cap public sector payoffs at £95,000.

One boss got nearly £450,000 as a severance payment last year while more than ten received over £150,000.

When it comes to pay packages at least 2,306 council employees earned more than £100,000 in the year to March 2017, according to the annual town hall rich list compiled by pressure group the TaxPayers’ Alliance. Hundreds earned more than the Prime Minister.

Severance payments to departing council executives are meant to be capped at £95,000 under the Enterprise Act which was passed in 2016. Ministers have said that they are committed to it, but the cap has yet to be enforced while the Government carries out a consultation.

The highest payment last year was to Chris West, executive director, resources, for Coventry Council who received £448,230 compensation for loss of office.

He took early retirement from his £150,000-a-year role after 34 years with the local authority in a cost-cutting exercise.

Mr West received a salary of £133,038 and £17,827 in employers’ pension contributions. A council spokesman said he had received the standard redundancy terms offered to all employees and he did not leave with an enhanced golden goodbye.

The next highest payout was £359,781 for the director, customer and leisure services, for Hambleton in North Yorkshire, followed by £296,738 for the director of public health for Cheshire East. Neither was named.

Other executives from Norfolk, Tower Hamlets in London and Bristol received payouts of more than £190,000.

A senior council director from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, received £247,207 after leaving his role as the director of planning and development. Jonathan MacDonald left last year in a management shake-up.

If the council had paid him the standard redundancy package based on his £100,064 salary he would have been entitled to around £24,000 for his eight years of service.

The rich list reveals that the 2,306 council employees whose total remuneration – including pensions, bonuses, expenses and other payouts – exceeded £100,000 last year was 60 fewer than the previous year. Pay packages for 558 exceeded the Prime Minister’s pay of around £150,000.

Seventy- seven councils had at least ten employees who received remuneration in excess of £100,000. Birmingham had three whose remuneration exceeded £250,000.

At least 16 local government bosses received more than £300,000

‘Most families will be shocked’

and four exceeded £500,000 in the year. The biggest pay package went to Mark Rogers, former chief executive of Birmingham City Council, who enjoyed total remuneration of £666,662.

He resigned in February last year following criticism of council overspending and failings in the protection of vulnerable children.

In addition to his salary of £168,985, Mr Rogers was also handed more than £118,000 in compensation for loss of office as well as employer pensions contributions worth nearly £370,000.

Norman Strachan, former finance director of Edinburgh City Council’s bus company, was paid £563,862. That included £154,000 in salary, a £ 150,000 payoff, a bonus of £46,000 and pension contributions paid by the public totalling more than £210,000.

John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Most families in the UK are paying more council tax this month, and they will be shocked to see how so much of their hard- earned money is being spent on huge payoffs for senior staff at local councils.

‘It’s simply unacceptable that town hall bosses are still receiving staggering payouts for leaving their jobs, despite a £95,000 cap passed by the last government. The Government must act urgently to implement this exit payment cap, as taxpayers deserve to see their money focused on essential services.’