Council chiefs earn more cash than PM
A town hall rich list revealing high-earning council workers who take home more than £100,000 in wages and allowances was today released.
A town hall rich list revealing high-earning council workers who take home more than £100,000 in wages and allowances was today released.
Chief executives at Dudley and Birmingham councils both pocketed more then the Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2008/09, according to the report by the TaxPayers' Alliance.
The report claims the highest earner in the West Midlands was Birmingham chief executive Stephen Hughes, with a pay package worth around £200,000.
It also claims former Dudley chief executive Andrew Sparke had a package worth £194, 600 which included a redundancy payment of just over £85,000.
As well as basic salary, the report takes into account other allowances and bonuses, including performance pay and redundancy payments.
It claims there were 12 executives in Birmingham with packages worth more than £100,000, six in Staffordshire, five in Walsall and Dudley, three in Sandwell, one who has now left. Cannock Chase, Wyre Forest, South Staffordshire, Stafford and Lichfield all had one.
Wolverhampton has eight listed although the council says the figures accidentally include three headteachers who should not have appeared on the list.
Nationally the figures show there were at least 1,250 council staff earning £100,000 or more in 2008-2009 which is up from 1,009 from the previous year.
There were also 166 earning over £150,000 in 2008/2009.A total of 31 council staff earned more than Gordon Brown up from 19 in the previous financial year.The average package for chief executives, including the allowances and bonuses, works out at £125,745 a year or £2,418 a week.
The information was gathered under the Freedom of Information Act.
John O'Connell, policy analyst at the campaign group TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "Town Hall bosses have had a very good recession at taxpayers' expense.
"More of them than ever are earning massive amounts."
