All the Lancashire County Council staff earning over £100K - and what it costs you

The authority paid out £2.74m to 19 employees who earned over £100,000 in pay and pension contributions during 2023/24, according to data obtained by the Taxpayers’ Alliance for its annual Town Hall Rich List report.

The number of staff taking home six-figure salaries increased from 13 a year earlier, when the total cost of County Hall’s most well-remunerated workers stood at £1.8m, Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) analysis found.

The best paid officer in both years was the county council’s then chief executive, Angie Ridgwell who earned a salary of £227,845 in 2022/23, rising to £236,637 twelve months later. She left in August 2024 to take up the equivalent post at Hertfordshire County Council.

Other top earners in 2023/24 included Louise Taylor, the then executive director of adult services and health and wellbeing – who held a shared director role with the NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board. Her total package amounted to £202,426, including £27,628 in pension contributions.

She was followed by the executive director for education and children’s services, Jacqui Old, who received £200,827 – which included a pension contribution of £27,407 – and Mark Wynn, at the time the executive director of resources, but now the new chief executive, who earned £194,006, including a pension payment of £25,531.

The authority did not disclose the names – or even the roles – of 12 of the remaining 15 earners of £100k+, detailing only how much they received.

Of the three others whose job titles alone were identified, the executive director of growth, environment and transport, took home a total of £172,758, the director of public health earned £158,721 and the director of law governance £124,806.

In the equivalent report last year, the roles of only five of the then 13 top earners were disclosed.

The LDRS approached Lancashire County Council for comment on the increase in its wage bill for high-ranking staff. A spokesperson said: “Senior officers’ pay is intended to reflect their responsibilities, skills and experience and ensure the best people possible are in these key positions.

“We work hard to recruit people who can deliver the best service possible for the people of Lancashire.”

The standalone unitary councils in Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen did provide data to the Taxpayers’ Alliance last year for their 2022/23 report, but in 2023/24, Blackpool had 10 staff earning more than £100K – at a total cost of £1.4m – while at Blackburn with Darwen, the figure was 11, generating a bill of almost £1.5m

Burnley Council was the only authority in the whole of the UK not to have paid anybody more than £100,000 in 2023/24, in spite of its chief executive and chief operating officer having exceeded that level the year before – at £144,000 and £112,000, respectively. The LDRS offered the authority a chance to comment on the reason for the decrease.

Across Lancashire’s 11 other district councils, there was little change in the number of top earners between 2022/23 and 2023/24, with all of those authorities having between one and three employees taking home in excess of that amount.

At Preston and Pendle, the tally increased from one to two, white at Hyndburn it climbed from two to three. In Rossendale, the number dropped from three to one.

Elsewhere, the number of £100K+ earners held steady: there were three in joint roles at South Ribble and Chorley councils – with the cost shared between the two authorities – three at Lancaster and Ribble Valley, two at West Lancashire and one at each of Fylde and Wyre.

According to the Taxpayers’ Alliance, more than 3,900 council employees across the UK received total remuneration of £100,000 or more during 2023/24 – a 26 percent increase on the previous year. Of these, 1,092 received at least £150,000 – 32 percent more than in 2022-23.

The organisation’s chief executive, John O’Connell, said: “It’s a record breaking year in many respects for taxpayers as the country hurtles towards a record tax burden, all while the public sector continues to feather its nest.

“As our latest town hall rich list demonstrates, the number of council staff with six-figure remuneration packages has surged at the same time that services are being slashed and council tax is being hiked above inflation.

“Local residents can look up their own authority in our list and judge the quality of services and their council tax bill against the pay packets of their council bosses.”