Leeds council employees earning more than £100,000 increased last year despite £28m cuts

Following a freedom of information request from think tank the TaxPayers' Alliance, the number of Leeds City Council officers with salaries of at least £100,000 increased from 18 in 2019/20 to 26 in 2020/21.

This was despite Leeds City Council making £28m worth of cuts in its budget for that year, and increasing council tax by nearly four per cent.

According to the figures, the highest paid member of staff at the council was Chief Executive Tom Riordan, who earned £185,896 a year, with a further five service directors paid between £148,000 and £160,000 each.

However, the biggest remuneration package in Yorkshire was given to Bradford Council Chief Executive Kersten England, who earned £228,350 during that year.

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.”

A spokesperson for Leeds City Council said: “The salaries paid to our chief officers are consistent with the duties they are required to undertake and the responsibilities they have, with salary grades benchmarked and evaluated according to the size and scope of each individual role.

“Leeds is the country’s second biggest unitary council and remains open and transparent about its salary levels. The number of staff earning over £100,000 represents 0.15 per cent of the workforce, with some having chosen not to accept all of the collectively agreed national pay awards in 2021.

“The council’s chief executive’s voluntary pay cut over the last few years has also been channelled into additional savings for the council and local good causes, totalling more than one year’s annual salary.

“Like all local authorities, Leeds City Council has faced unprecedented challenges over the past two years due to coronavirus and the council’s senior management team, including the chief executive and directors, have played an important role in coordinating the city’s response and more recently its recovery.”

The Taxpayer's Alliance is a think tank set up in 2004, and campaigns for cuts to public spending.

The group has been criticised in recent years for its lack of transparency about how it is funded and who its donors are.

A 2018 investigation by The Guardian revealed the organisation received large amounts of cash from overseas, including $100,000 "originating from a billionaire-founded religious trust incorporated in the Bahamas".