At least 2,525 council staff were paid more than £100,000 a year in 2011-12, according to the latest ‘town hall rich list’ from the Taxpayers’ Alliance.
That is a drop of 11% from 2,839 in the previous year – the first time the figure has dropped since the ‘rich list’ began in 2007.
But despite a national fall, 103 councils saw an increase in highly paid staff.
The highest paid council employee in the country for 2011/12 was Kent CC’s Katherine Kerswell, but her pay packet for the year included a pay-off for leaving the council.
Bi-borough council chief, Derek Myers, who runs both Kensington and Chelsea LBC and Hammersmith and Fulham LBC, received the highest payout for the year without a redundancy package, at £266,911.
Chief executive of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, Matthew Sinclair, said it was ‘good news’ that the number of high earning council staff had dropped ‘although that may only be because many authorities have finished paying eye-watering redundancy bills.’
’Sadly, too many local authorities are still increasing the number of highly paid staff on their payroll, some of whom are given hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation just to move from one public sector job to another. Residents won't be impressed if their council pleads poverty when it is demanding more and more Council Tax, only then to spend it creating more town hall tycoons.’
The survey also found:
- Birmingham doubled the number of employees who received more than £100,000 in 2011/12 to 24
- 636 council employees were paid more than £150,000
- 42 received remuneration of more than £250,000
- Camden LBC had the highest number of employees earning more than £100,000 with 40
- 38 councils had at least 15 employees earning more than £100,000
- Cardiff City Council chief Jon House was the highest paid council employee in Wales
- Glasgow City council has the highest number of staff on more than £100,000 out of the Scottish local authorities – with 27
Of the top 20:
- Glasgow City Council appears five times – twice for subsidiary company City Building
- Kent CC tops the list for its payoff for group MD Katherine Kerswell
- It includes eight chief executives/council MD; four deputy/assistant chief executives; and two directors of children’s services
