Compensation packages of £100,000 or more were granted to over 100 departing council officials last year, research suggests.

Pay-offs ranging between £100,000 and £420,000 were given to 135 officials during 2012, the findings state, prompting local government minister Brandon Lewis to urge town halls to end current pay-off practices.

Kent CC is reported to have given the largest payment to a departing chief executive, with former managing director Katherine Kerswell being given £420,000 on top of salary and pension contributions.

Research from The Telegraph finds Birmingham City Council gave 27 staff pay-off packages between £100,000 and £150,000, while Newcastle City Council granted 12 six-figure payments to departing staff.

Dorset CC gave seven executives a combined £1.03m in compensation, with South Gloucestershire Council providing six-figure pay-offs to eight employees.

Fenland DC – which has 95,000 residents – is also reported to have provided similar payments, giving £370,400 to retiring chief executive Tim Pilsbury in 2010/11.

Lewis said: ‘I fail to see any credible business case for such eye-watering sums being shelled out. Dishing out such huge amounts of cash without a second thought shows a lack of respect for the public purse and good councils want help to end this.

‘These pay-offs are a legacy of Labour's golden goodbye gravy train which we are putting a stop to,’ Lewis added.

A Local Government Association spokesman said: ‘To help manage government funding cuts councils have reduced significantly the number of senior staff and middle managers. Last financial year they cut £1.4bn from the local government paybill, with 90% of local authorities reducing senior management costs in the process.

‘This has led to a small spike in one-off redundancy payments which is mostly responsible for the increase in the number of officers receiving more than £100,000.’

To search through data on council pay-offs, visit MYB Intelligence.