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