Cardiff council has the most highly-paid officials in Wales with 14 members of staff receiving six-figure pay and pensions packages last year, a report by the Taxpayers' Alliance suggests. The campaign group published the data in their Welsh town hall rich list.
The biggest remuneration package of all was given to Denbighshire’s departing chief executive Judith Greenhalgh. She benefited from a pay package worth £280,189 last year when her salary, pension and an extra £102,000 exit payment were taken into account. Yet she was just one of 145 members of staff who benefited from packages worth more than £100,000 in 2020-21.
Ms Greenhalgh was CEO of Denbighshire council since April 2018, but took a career break after being on "special leave" for around two months. Earlier this year we put together a full breakdown of all the highest paid public sector officials in Wales here.
The top five pay packages were:
- Denbighshire chief executive: £280,189
- Cardiff's chief executive Paul Orders: £223,760
- Cardiff's assistant director of children's services: £221,186
- Pembrokeshire council's chief executive/returning officer: £218,807
- Rhondda Cynon Taf's chief executive Chris Bradshaw: £188,000
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."
The Welsh Local Government Association responded on behalf of all Welsh councils. A spokeswoman said: "These are difficult times for many of the people and communities of Wales and councils across the country are doing everything they can to support them. Councils in Wales need strong leadership in the best of times and have needed that more than ever as local services continue to respond to the pandemic and new challenges caused by the war in Ukraine. Senior officers are instrumental in co-ordinating the local and national responses and run businesses employing thousands of people with large budgets of hundreds of millions of pounds.
"Councils in Wales are committed to meeting the senior pay transparency guidance produced by Welsh Government in addition to needing to refer any changes in chief executive pay to the Independent Remuneration Panel. All produce Pay Policy statements which are fully published and can be found on local authorities’ websites. These are a far more accurate reflection of salaries in councils than set out in the TPA’s report."
Each Welsh council broken down:
Blaenau Gwent:
- Managing director £135,126
- Corporate director of regeneration & community services £111,729
- Corporate director of social services £111,729
- Corporate director of education (from 30 march 2020) £103,386
Bridgend:
- Chief executive officer & head of paid service £167,442
- Corporate director - education and family support £135,956
- Corporate director - communities £131,555
- Corporate director - social services & wellbeing £130,669
- Chief officer - legal, HR and regulatory services £100,894
Caerphilly:
- Chief executive £172,939
- Corporate director - social services & housing £158,106
- Corporate director - economy & environment £158,106
- Corporate director - education & corporate services £150,812
- Undisclosed £102,500
- Undisclosed £102,500
- Undisclosed £102,500
Cardiff:
- Chief executive £223,760
- Assistant director children's services £221,186
- Corporate director resources & section 151 officer £171,109
- Corporate director people and communities £171,109
- Director planning, transport & environment £157,947
- Director economic development £157,947
- Director governance & legal services & monitoring officer £156,908
- Chief digital officer £126,798
- Assistant director adult services £107,405
- Assistant director education & lifelong learning £107,405
- Assistant director street scene £107,405
- Programme director - schools organisation programme £107,405
- Head of finance £107,405
- Head of performance & partnerships £105,592
Carmarthenshire:
- Chief executive & returning officer £179,777
- Director of communities £171,408
- Director of environment £155,826
- Director of corporate services £155,826
- Director of education & children's services £155,826
Ceredigion:
- Chief executive corporate director £136,489
- Corporate director £120,532
Conwy:
- Chief executive £149,500
- Strategic director of social care and education £120,534
- Strategic director (economy & place) £119,416
- Strategic director (finance & efficiencies) £109,667
- Statutory head of education services £104,255
- Undisclosed £102,500
Denbighshire:
- Chief executive £280,189*
- Corporate director: economy & public realm £137,231
- Corporate director: communities £137,231
- Head of community support services £112,530
- Head of legal, HR & democratic services £112,530
- Head of highways, facilities & environmental services £112,530
- Head of planning, public protection & countryside services £112,530
- Head of business improvement & modernisation £112,496
- Head of finance & property £109,176
- Head of communities & customers £107,814
*The council said the salary for the post was £136,312. The remuneration for the year also includes an exit payment of £102,234.
Flintshire:
- Chief executive £178,707
- Chief officer social services £131,630
- Chief officer governance £126,296
- Chief officer education & youth £122,360
- Chief officer planning, environment & economy £122,360
- Chief officer streetscene & transportation £122,360
- Chief officer housing & assets £122,360
Gwynedd:
- Chief executive £142,148
- Corporate director £119,141
- Head of education £105,900
- Head of finance £101,128
Isle of Anglesey:
- Chief executive £146,336
- Deputy chief executive £ 120,872
- Director of function (resources) & S151 £108,604
- Director of education, skills and young people £108,148
- Head of service: housing £100,186
Merthyr Tydfil:
- Interim chief executive £151,807
- Interim deputy chief executive £123,310
- Chief officer social services £105,153
- Chief officer education officer £105,083
Monmouthshire:
- Chief executive officer £147,665
- Undisclosed £117,500
- Chief officer - children and young people £108,445
- Chief officer - social care, safeguarding £108,445
- Chief officer - resources & acting section 151 officer £108,445
- Chief officer - enterprise £106,938
Neath Port Talbot:
- Director of education, leisure & lifelong learning £160,142
- Director of social services, health & housing £137,295
- Director of environment £132,614
Newport:
- Head of adult & community services £112,110
- Chief executive - (appointed 29 july 2020) £104,839
- Head of children & young people services £103,989
- Chief education officer £103,626
- Head of people & business change £103,626
- Head of law and regulation (monitoring officer) £103,424
- Head of finance (section 151 officer) £103,021
- Head of city services £102,059
Pembrokeshire:
- Chief executive/returning officer £218,807
- Director of community services £162,131
- Director of social services & housing £151,586
- Director of resources £150,279
- Director for education £136,127
Powys:
- Chief executive £179,000
- Corporate director (children and adults) £144,000
- Corporate director (economy and environment) £134,000
- Head of transformation and communication £113,000
- Head of legal and democratic services £111,000
- Strategic lead for education (interim) £111,000
- Head of finance (s.151 officer) £106,000
- Interim chief education officer £103,000
Rhondda Cynon Taf:
- Chief executive £188,000
- Director of human resources £122,000
- Director of finance & digital services £122,000
- Director of prosperity & development £114,000
- Director of legal services £113,000
- Group director, community & children's services & deputy chief executive £113,000
- Group director, prosperity, development and frontline services £113,000
- Director of education & inclusion services £113,000
- Director of corporate estates £113,000
Swansea:
- Deputy chief executive & director of resources £153,008
- Chief executive £152,671
- Director of social services £146,186
- Director of place £143,325
- Section 151 officer & chief finance officer £132,104
- Director of education £122,148
- Monitoring officer & chief legal officer £118,229
- Chief transformation officer £116,796
- Head of cultural services £110,966
- Head of highways & transportation £110,966
- Head of planning & city regeneration £110,966
- Head of education planning & resources £104,608
Torfaen:
- Chief executive £142,979
- Assistant chief executive - resources £118,250
- Chief officer social care and housing £115,484
- Chief officer neighbourhood, planning and public protection £115,484
- Head of education services £115,431
- Undisclosed £107,500
Vale of Glamorgan:
- Managing director £168,033
- Director of environment and housing services £128,073
- Director of learning and skills £128,073
- Director of social services £124,874
- Head of finance £109,878
- Head of legal services (monitoring officer) £109,878
Wrexham:
- Chief executive £157,546
- Chief officer finance & ICT £117,767
- Chief officer housing & economy £117,767
- Chief officer planning & regulatory £117,767
- Chief officer governance & customer £112,590
- Chief officer environment & technical £112,590
