Who's The Richest Of Them All?


Twenty employees of Wandsworth Council staff members appear on Public Sector 'Rich List'

Published by the TaxPayers' Alliance, the list shows the remuneration details of the 1,089 public sector workers earning £100,000 or more.

W Myers - Director of Wandsworth of Technical Services appears on the list earning a salary of £157,500, £6,250 more than Gordon Brown earns as Prime Minister.

His colleague P Robinson came second in the Council as Director of Children's Services with a salary of £152,500.

The highest percentage payrise was given 9.3% which was given to the Head of Policy & Strategy, R Appleton with a salary of £177,500. Meanwhile his colleague the Chief Executive & Director of Administration, G Jones took a 42.4% reduction of salary from £212,500 to £122,500 over the past 12 months.

The TaxPayers' Alliance says those on the list come from 358 government departments, quangos, public corporations, other public bodies and nationalised industries. The most highly paid person in the public sector this year was Mark Fisher of the Royal Bank of Scotland, whose remuneration was £1,388,000, while Adam Crozier of Royal Mail was the highest paid non-bank employee in the public sector, earning £1,309,000.

The BBC, meanwhile, has at least 53 people on £150,000 or over and Transport for London has 50 members of staff on or above £150,000. In comparison, the Treasury - the main Government department responsible for tackling the recession - has a modest three people on the Rich List while Gordon Brown is only the 324th highest paid person in the public sector.

According to the report, there are eight people in the public sector who earn more than £1 million a year, compared with four people last year.

John O’Connell, Policy Analyst at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Executive pay in the public sector is completely divorced from the reality of Britain’s fiscal crisis. Ordinary families, struggling to make ends meet in the recession, don’t pay their taxes to fund gold-plated deals for public sector fat cats. All parties now agree that excessive pay packages must be tackled but the time for action is now, not next year. Taxpayers want genuine transparency, accountability and restraint in setting top public sector pay.”

The TaxPayer's Alliance say the figures in the report comprise not just basic salaries but include salary, bonuses, incentive plans, benefits-in-kind and pension contributions.

The Public Sector Rich List does not include senior staff in local authorities as these are covered in a separate report.


December 14, 2009