29 council employees across Nottinghamshire earned more than £100,000 over the past year, it has been revealed. New figures show that the chief executive of Nottinghamshire County Council Anthony May is the highest earner, being paid £185,386 during the most recent financial year.
Of those 29 employees, 20 were paid more than six figures through just their base salary - with the rest passing the threshold through other means such as contributions to their pension, bonuses or compensation.
At Nottingham City Council, the director for commercial and operations received their yearly salary of just under £40,000 - but was also given compensation to the tune of £88,170. The highest earner at the city council was its corporate director for people, who was paid £143,850. Mel Barrett, the city council's chief executive, is paid a salary of £104,891.
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The data, released by the TaxPayers' Alliance as part of its annual Town Hall Rich List, showed the county's top earners were nowhere near as highly paid as some other bosses at local authorities - such as the chief executive at Croydon council, who received a salary of £613,895.
The data showed that chief executives at Bassetlaw District Council, Gedling Borough Council, Broxtowe Borough Council and Ashfield District Council all also pocketed a salary worth over six figures.
It also showed that the chief executive of Rushcliffe Borough Council earns £113,316. A spokesperson for the authority said: “We deliver high quality services to over 115,000 people across the Borough with the lowest council tax rate anywhere in Nottinghamshire and within the lowest 25% in the country.
“Our dedicated teams across the organisation balance the council’s priorities on the environment, quality of life, efficient services and sustainable growth bucking the trend to similar-sized councils and operating services with no debt.
"With other Local Resilience Forum partners, the Council has been among those fronting the response to COVID-19, playing a vital role in distributing over £36m of grants and £19.2m of reduction in business rate bills and assisting communities’ transition to the central government living with COVID plan.”
Meanwhile, the Mansfield District Council chief executive earned £116,000. Mike Robinson, Co Chief Executive Officer (Interim) at Mansfield District Council, said: “All the senior officer salaries at Mansfield District Council are subject to approval by the council’s Personnel Committee after having benchmarked salaries across the East Midlands for local authorities. Pay awards are made in line with the Joint National Committee for Chief Officers. The salaries are more or less in line with the average in this region for these roles.”
A spokesperson for the Taxpayers' Alliance said: "For the average (band D) property, taxpayers in England will have to pay a council tax rise of 3.5 per cent, or an extra £68 per year in 2022-23. Wales will see an average increase of 2.7 per cent. All Scottish local authorities – apart from Shetland – will see an increase in 2022-23.
"Against this background, the number of local authority employees receiving over £100,000 in total remuneration has risen to the highest level since 2013-14."
A Nottingham City Council spokesperson said: “Large unitary authorities have annual budgets in the hundreds of millions of pounds and need high-calibre managers to steer a wide range of complex services – from care of the elderly through to housing, public transport and many more.
“Nottingham City Council serves one of the biggest and fastest-growing cities in the country, delivering public services to almost 350,000 people.
“It’s important to remember that more than 99% of our staff are not in this pay category and are dedicated to delivering the vital local services that people have particularly relied on over the past two years of the pandemic. Senior manager and director-level pay in the private sector in similar-sized organisations is generally much higher than it is in councils.”
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