Town Hall Rich List 2022: Sandwell Council official one of the top ten highest paid in the country

Sandwell Council’s executive director, neighbourhoods was the tenth highest earning council official in the country during the pandemic.

The post holder was paid a total of £301,623 in 2020/21, including compensation and pension on top of a salary of £100,594.

The figures for 2020/21 have been revealed in the annual Town Hall Rich List from the Taxpayers Alliance.

Each year the pressure group publishes information on the number of council officials earning over £100,000 and £150,000 in each area - including their salary, expenses, compensation payouts and pension.

Sandwell has 14 officials who earn over £100,000 and four who earned over £150,000.

In addition to their salary, the executive director was paid £180,370 competition and £20,6559 pension during the period.

The official earning the highest salary was the Chief Executive, who was paid £151,440. In total they took home £182,654, including £31,074 for their pension and £140 marked as ‘other’ in the audit books.

The TPA research only mentions the names of post holders where these are identified by the council.

Sandwell Council has not named any of their high earning officers.

How does this compare to the rest of the West Midlands?

In comparison, Birmingham City Council, a bigger council, had 21 officials who earned over £100,000 and one who earned over £150,000.

The highest earner in Birmingham was the director, place who took home £204,058 after getting £167,000 compensation and £5,397 pension payment on top of their salary of £331,661. The biggest salary paid in Birmingham was £173,060 paid to the acting chief executive and director, adult social care.

You can see the full list of council officials earning over £100,000 in Birmingham, Sandwell and Solihull below.

How does this compare to the rest of the country and previous years?

At least 2,921 people employed by local authorities in 2020-21 received more than £100,000 in total remuneration, an increase of 119 on 2019-20. It is also the highest number since 2013-14.

739 received over £150,000, 46 more than the previous year.

The average number of employees who received over £100,000 in total remuneration per local authority is 7.7. The average number receiving over £150,000 is two employees per council.

A total of 23local authority employees received a loss of office payment of more than £95,000 – the former cap on payoffs for public sector employees – two more than the previous year. This cap was subsequently revoked and only partially covered the period of this year’s Town Hall Rich List.

The local authority with the greatest numberof employees whose remuneration was in excess of £100,000 was Westminster council with 44 employees, nine more than the previous year.

The former chief executive of Croydon council, Jo Negrini, received the highest remuneration of any council employee in the country at £613,895. This is despite the council effectively declaring bankruptcy in November 2020. Negrini left the council in September 2020, and received a loss of office payment of £144,356 and a pension strain payment of £292,851.

What has the TPA said about the findings in The Town Hall Rich List?

John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said:

“Taxpayers facing a cost of living crisis want to know they are getting value for money from their local authority leadership.

“With households having suffered through the pandemic and now struggling under colossal tax bills, the country needs councils to prioritise key services without resorting to punishing tax hikes.

“These figures will allow residents to judge town hall bosses for themselves and hold their local councils to account.”

Where does this research come from?

The TPA said that their figures are sourced from the annual accounts published by each council. These are available online on each council’s website. They use audited accounts whenever available. But if audited accounts are not provided by the council, then the TPA uses unaudited or draft accounts which are also provided by councils.

The amount used is the total remuneration an individual receives, including their pension payments and expenses. This amount represents the total cost to the taxpayer.

Redundancy payments are also included, even where an individual’s salary is below £100,000 because these cost are also incurred by taxpayers.

A bit more information about the TPA Town Hall Rich List...

The Town Hall Rich List is the only list of its kind of all senior council employees throughout the country and is always published at the start of April to coincide with new council tax charges. The TPA publish it then to allow residents to see their local council’s senior employees’ remunerations and directly compare these to other councils around the country.

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