£200,000 salary for authority’s new boss

A new chief executive on more than £200,000 a year has been appointed at the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority - the county’s mayoral body.

The combined authority’s board has approved a unanimous recommendation from its Employment Committee to appoint Eileen Milner to the post.

Ms Milner is currently chief executive and accounting officer of the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).

Prior to this Ms Milner was executive director at the Care

Quality Commission, the regulator of health and adult social care in England. Her career spans the public and commercial sectors, as well as higher education.

Her salary for her new role, which she is due to begin in the autumn, will be £203,923. The combined authority said that the figure has been “benchmarked against other roles of similar responsibility and with the goal of balancing value for money with the ability to attract talented candidates”.

Before Ms Milner takes up the job, current joint chief executives Kim Sawyer and John Hill will continue in their roles.

Mayor of Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Dr Nik Johnson said: “I think that the fact we have been able to appoint such an outstanding, experienced individual as Eileen owes a lot to the cooperative approach taken.

Ms Milner has lived in South Cambridgeshire for more than 20 years, is married and has one daughter. She grew up in Cornwall and went to the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

There were 33 applications for the role following an executive search by recruiters Penna and supplemented by national advertising.

Eileen Milner