Town Hall Rich List: The Hartlepool Borough Council jobs earning more than £100,000

The latest figures published in the TaxPayers’ Alliance Town Hall Rich List have revealed the top earners in local authorities across the UK.

In Hartlepool, three senior workers received salaries in 2020/21 worth more than £100,000, while a fourth was paid £90,166.

Together with pension contributions, the final bill for the group of top earners in the borough was almost £500,000.

A spokesman for Hartlepool Borough Council said: “The most senior local government posts come with significant statutory responsibility and that is reflected in the salaries paid by councils across the UK.

"As an authority, it is vital that we are able to recruit suitably qualified and experienced staff but we also recognise the importance of achieving best value for local council tax payers.

"The salaries paid to our most senior staff are, in some cases, lower than the average ‘going rate’ for the region and, in addition, significant savings have been achieved in recent years as a result of senior management team restructures.

“The council had already published details of senior managers’ remuneration in the statement of accounts.”

Nationally, the data found the number of officials receiving more than £100,000 went up to 2,921 during the covid pandemic, with 739 getting more than £150,000.

However Hartlepool appears to have bucked the trend slightly, with fewer top earners on its books this time around than when the last set of figures was published.

According to the data, the top paid figure in 2020/21 was the director of children and joint commissioning services on £119,591, followed by the director of resources and development on £116,139 and the director of adults and community based services on £114,684.

The council’s chief solicitor was paid £90,166, while all four were also given pension contributions on top of their salaries.

The former chief executive of Croydon council, Jo Negrini, received a staggering £613,895, the highest remuneration of any council employee in the country.

For the second year running, Northumberland was named the North East council with the most employees receiving more than £100,000 in 2020/21 with 20 - seven more than the previous year.

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.”

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