Councils have given pay-offs of £100,000 to council chiefs

£100,000 pay-offs for council chiefs


Councils have given pay-offs of £100,000 or more to 135 officials leaving their jobs in the past year, The Telegraph has found.








Brandon Lewis, the local government minister, accused the councils of showing a "lack of respect" to taxpayers Photo: REX





By Steven Swinford and Gregory Walton

9:52PM GMT 01 Jan 2013




Ministers told local authorities to end the culture of "eye-watering" compensation packages of up to £420,000 to former bosses.


Brandon Lewis, the local government minister, accused the councils of showing a "lack of respect" to taxpayers after figures compiled by this newspaper showed that scores of executives received six-figure sums on top of their salaries and pension contributions when they left their posts.


Many have found highly-paid jobs elsewhere in the public sector, including senior positions in Whitehall, or formed their own consultancies, working for councils and government bodies.


Birmingham city council was among the most generous, giving pay-offs of between £100,000 and £150,000 to 27 staff. Newcastle city council gave 12 six-figure golden goodbyes and Gateshead handed out nine. Dorset county council gave a total of £1.03 million to seven executives, whose pay-offs ranged from £100,000 to £242,000. South Gloucestershire gave six-figure golden goodbyes to eight staff, and Middlesbrough gave six-figure pay-offs to five executives.


Even the smallest councils were following suit. Fenland council in Cambridgeshire, which has 95,000 residents, gave £370,400 to its chief executive Tim Pilsbury when he took early retirement in 2010-11.



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Mr Lewis said: "I fail to see any credible business case for such eye-watering sums being shelled out which in some cases would make a Premiership manager blush.

"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."

Millions of householders are facing a rise in council tax as town halls defy Coalition calls for a freeze on bills. Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, said last month that local authorities had a "moral duty" not to raise tax after he announced more funding cuts.

A survey by the Local Government Chronicle found that 22.4 per cent of local authorities were planning to increase council tax in an effort to preserve services.

The pay-offs to the 135 officials followed several lucrative awards to council bosses the previous year. Analysis of local authority accounts found that 10 executives received pay-offs of almost £3 million between them, on top of their salaries and pension contributions.

The biggest were made by Kent county council where, in the past two years, five officials were given a total of £1.2 million.

Katherine Kerswell, the council's former managing director, received a £420,000 pay-off after less than 20 months in the job, on top of her £139,806 salary and £29,359 pension contribution. She is now the Cabinet Office's director of civil service reform on a salary of £142,000 a year.

Lynda McMullan, the former corporate director, was paid £172,000 in compensation and has since joined the National Audit Office as assistant auditor general. Mrs McMullan, who now earns £145,000, said after her appointment that "value for money" was one of the most important issues facing the public sector.

The accounts also disclose that Peter Gilroy, the chief executive before Mrs Kerswell was appointed, was given £407,851 in compensation. He has since formed his own consultancy.

Paul Carter, the leader of Kent council, said the authority had no choice but to make the payments after taking legal advice. He urged the Government to change employment regulations to make it less expensive to sack people.

Barnet borough council, in north London, has paid almost £1 million to six executives over the past two years.

Brian Reynolds, the former director of environment and development, received a £280,485 pay-off on top of his £107,000 salary and pension payments. He has since formed Brian Reynolds Associates, a consultancy, and runs the Local Government Association’s “productivity programme” to help make councils more efficient. A spokesman for Barnet said that it had saved £1.5 million by reducing its management team, but that it had to “honour contracts”.

In Southampton, Lorraine Brown, the city council’s executive director for environment, received a £133,970 pay-off on top of her £126,663 salary. She is paid £17,000 for working two months a year as chairman of the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs Southern Regional Flood and Coastal committee.

Nick Murphy, the council’s former executive director for neighbourhoods, received £93,500 after being made redundant. A month later he became chief executive of Nottingham City Homes, a £140,000 role in which he oversees the city’s 29,000 council houses. A spokesman for the council said it was contractually obliged to make the payments.

East Sussex council paid Sean Nolan, the former director of corporate resources, £128,191 on top of his £153,933 salary. He is now a freelance consultant, and writes on his web page of having negotiated his own voluntary severance payment. The council said his voluntary severance would help to save £5.5 million over the next three years.

Last night, a spokesman for the Local Government Association said: “To help manage government funding cuts, councils have reduced significantly the number of senior staff and middle managers.

“Last financial year they cut £1.4 billion from the local government pay bill, with 90 per cent 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.”

As well as payoffs the vast salaries given to Council leaders, Chief Executives, Senior Managers etc., all needs to be investigated, when they are making cuts in services and paying way over the top salaries and having too many managers it is a disgrace. People with disabilities often have to wait for example a very long time to get equipment they need, they are put often on a waiting list and told there is not enough money - they also need to start looking into the expenses by council workers as well and see how much council money is wasted just as the MPS waste money and take the public for a ride.

cherry1 wrote:As well as payoffs the vast salaries given to Council leaders, Chief Executives, Senior Managers etc., all needs to be investigated, when they are making cuts in services and paying way over the top salaries and having too many managers it is a disgrace. People with disabilities often have to wait for example a very long time to get equipment they need, they are put often on a waiting list and told there is not enough money - they also need to start looking into the expenses by council workers as well and see how much council money is wasted just as the MPS waste money and take the public for a ride.

My Council sends a circular to Residents living in the Area where they are planning a few embellishments to a local Park, yet not far away, on the main road , part of the pavement is so uneven that when it rains, like it is now, it looks like war torn Beirut , puddles everywhere .......yet is anything done about it NO !!!