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Monday 9 November 2015

Thanet Council: Rewarding Failure?


Former Green Party councillor and South Thanet Parliamentary Candidate, Ian Driver, has questioned whether TDC Chief Executive Madeline Homer’s £150,000 per year salary represents value for money. Homer’s salary is made up of basic pay of £114,000 plus a cash allowance of £3,500 and an employer pension contribution of £13,000. As the Council’s Returning Officer, Homer also receives extra payments for supervising local, general and European elections. Driver estimated that for managing  this May’s parliamentary and council elections she is likely to have been paid  in the region of £20,000 plus extra contributions towards her pension bringing  her total salary for 2015-16 to over £150,000  or £2,885 per week (1) .

Said Driver “TDCs Chief Executive’s weekly pay is an eye-watering 6 times higher than Thanet’s average weekly wage of £450(2). I don’t think a pay differential as great as this, especially in a deprived area like Thanet where thousands of families are struggling hard to get by,  is justifiable.  I’m pleased to hear that Chancellor George Osbourne has said that he will shortly be issuing guidance to curb excessive


Town Hall  pay packets like this(3)”.

He added “I’m also very concerned that lavish salaries continue to be paid to senior council bosses at a time when TDC is performing so badly. Recently published deprivation and poverty  figures, for example,  saw  Thanet’s position becoming considerably worse than it was five years ago. It’s also  likely that TDC will have to pay out  £millions more than was planned  towards the compulsory purchase of  the Dreamland site. There's also additional damages of at least £1 million to be paid to the live animal export companies following the councils unlawful suspension of the trade, and compensation and fines totalling several £millions which are likely to result  from an on-going and extremely  serious investigation by the   Health and Safety Executive into the council's alleged breach of safety laws. Yet according to the Council accounts 7 officers, in addition to the Chief Executive,  are earning more than £70,000 (4) per year. Many  people might call this rewarding failure. If I was still on the council I would most certainly be raising  questions about  what I believe to be excessive pay and poor value for money. I would strongly urge the people of Thanet to make their views about excessive Town Hall pay known to the power that be  through the budget consultation process which can be accessed via TDCs  website".
Figures revealed by the Taxpayers Alliance today show that 3,493 senior council staff from across the country earn more than £100,000 per year (5) This article is not intended to create the impression that all staff at TDC receive excessive or lavish rewards. They do not. Most staff work very hard for wages which are not especially good. 

 1.     Chief Executive’s total payment calculated from data in the Thanet Council’s annual accounts here https://www.thanet.gov.uk/publications/finance/statement-of-accounts-2014-to-2015/notes-29-to-31-of-the-core-financial-statement/
See table  setting out the remuneration disclosures for Senior Officers whose salary is less than £150,000 but equal to or more than £50,000 per year for 2014-15 plus footnotes to that table
2.     See Earnings in Kent 2014 http://www.kent.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/8183/Earnings-in-Kent.pdf
3.     See http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/nov/09/osborne-warns-unacceptable-public-sector-pay-perks 
4.     See 1 above
5.     See 3 above

13 comments:

  1. Well said Ian these are high salaries for failure. Should council pay be capped at £100k? Payoffs are now capped at £95k.

    What are we paying for the Town Councils too?

    And why arent other councillors reviewing these costs?

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  2. 17 Tdc staff paid over £50k: £700k. This could easily be halved.

    Plus over 700 staff is far too many especially for such a notoriously incompeteny council. How much has been wasted on failure and corruption?

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    1. What are 700 tdc staff doing? Is there a headcount by department

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  3. The Gazette says 21 staff earning £100k the most of any kent council. And KCC 41 staff the highest in South East.

    Why did Iris and Bob allow this

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    1. The figures produced by the Tax Payers alliance are misleading. They were for the financial year 2013-14 when Thanet had many interim managers and consultants paid at rates equivalent to more than £100,000 per year. Most of the interims and consultants did not stay all year so their actual pay was less this. I also believe that a number of senior staff were made redundant during that year and that including severance packages and confidentiality clauses their pay also came in over £100,00 as well. Hence the 21. I have based my estimates on figures included in the Council accounts for 2014-15 which are more accurate

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    2. Tdc website still has Macgonifal and Seed as CE. Outdated info.

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  4. Why are we paying a CEO to run elections? Everyone on the night is a volunteer...I would end company cars and limit allowances to £250

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  5. Thanet Nhs and other public sector organisations could do with a salary review too if the councillors are just sheep

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  6. Homer is worth about £60k? Why pay more than that?

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  7. Perhaps £80k as it is 700 staff but much of that will be featherbedding or clerical work rather than corporate management as such.

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  8. The Daily Mail is detailing millions of pounds of nhs and council waste. How do councillors scrutinise nhs salaries? There seems no scrutiny at all

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  9. What is happening with the costs of the Town councils?

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  10. 41 Kcc staff earning over £100k and 8 over £150k and ceo on £240k - to switch off street lights. Austerity doesn't seem to apply to fronline services or tax cuts.

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