Tories condemn 'mad' public sector pay
Friday, 3 November 2006 12:00 AM
The Conservatives have condemned top public sector salaries as "crazily out of kilter" as new figures show the top 171 executives are earning an average of £260,000 each.
Figures collated by the Taxpayers' Alliance finds three people are earning more than £1 million a year for their work heading up public sector companies, a further 11 earn more than £500,000 and 46 earn £250,000.
At the top of the pay scale was Transport for London commissioner Bob Kiley, who was on a pay and benefits package worth £1,146,425 before he stepped down in January.
Adam Crozier, the group chief executive of Royal Mail, was in second place with a salary, pension and bonus deal of £1,038,000, followed closely by Network Rail chief executive John Armitt, on £1,027,000.
Tony Blair came just 88th on the rich list, with his salary of £183,932 coming far below that of people like British Nuclear Fuel chief executive Michael Park, whose pay deal was worth £635,751, and BBC director general Mark Thompson, who was on £619,000.
One area likely to cause most controversy is the pay awarded to top NHS officials, at a time when trusts nationwide are being forced to cut jobs and services to deal with more than £520 million worth of deficits.
The report suggests the 12 top earners in the NHS take home an average of £183,000 each - almost ten times the £19,000 starting salary for a nurse.
Richard Granger, who heads the controversial NHS IT modernisation programme, tops the list at £285,000 a year, followed by Nigel Crisp, the NHS chief executive sacked earlier this year, and William Moyes, chairman of foundation hospital regulators Monitor.
The Taxpayers' Alliance is a lobby group campaigning for lower taxes and a smaller public sector, and today chief executive Matthew Elliot said taxpayers would be "shocked" at the salaries being paid to top officials.
"Large numbers of people in the public sector are effectively being paid City salaries. It is not surprising that taxes keep going up when the salaries for the public sector's top executives keep rocketing," he said.
Shadow trade and industry secretary Alan Duncan agreed, saying: "When Bob Kiley is paid nearly ten times more than the prime minister, then the world has gone mad.
"People should be rewarded for their competence and the risks they take. A lot of these payments seem crazily out of kilter."
However, a government spokeswoman insisted that public sector pay growth - which today's survey suggests was 8.4 per cent for the top 171 earners last year, compared to a national average of 4.2 per cent - remained below that of the private sector.
"Following decades of underinvestment in the public sector the government has made record levels of investment to deliver the world class public services the taxpayers of this country deserve," she said.
She added: "Government takes and firm but fair approach to public sector pay. An effective pay policy will retain, recruit and motivate staff delivering public services, particularly staff in key frontline delivery."
Serious about politics?
Dedicate one year of your life to getting to the heart of current issues in global politics. Our courses allow you to specialise in development and policy-making, international relations, and political journalism and communications.
Newsletter sign up