LEVELLING UP FATCAT SPREE
£140k salaries for regional directors
MICHAEL Gove’s Levelling Up department has been criticised for offering to pay its regional directors £140,000.
Job adverts published this week say the 21 roles will provide a “once-in-alifetime opportunity”.
But critics fear the posts will be offered to ex-town hall officials in a revolving door of failure.
The successful candidates – who will receive almost five times the salary of the average council worker – are expected to “live, breathe and champion” the places they represent.
But yesterday it remained unclear what the roles will actually involve.
The Levelling Up department was created to “drive prosperity” across the whole of the UK, not just London.
Wolverhampton, Truro in Cornwall and Hastings in East Sussex are among the areas looking for directors.
But John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “These pricey pen-pushers will end up costing the very people they’re trying to help a fortune in taxes. The best way to level up is by allowing families and firms to keep more of their own money and giving them more say over how taxes are spent.”
The job news comes after it emerged some 2,921 council fatcats pocketed more than £100,000 last year.
Lisa Nandy, Shadow Levelling Up Secretary, said: “It is vital these directors provide value for money for the taxpayer and understand the communities they are serving.
“Levelling Up can’t be about rearranging the deckchairs or more bureaucracy – it’s about good jobs for everyone, money in people’s pockets, and empowering people to make the decisions that affect communities.”
Harry Quilter-Pinner, director of the IPPR think-tank, warned against recruiting from the old guard of local politics and said the Government must instead “reach out to women, people of colour and people from working-class backgrounds”.
A government spokesman said: “Directors will be working collaboratively with local leaders across all sectors to drive innovative proposals.”