Rich list row over North Lanarkshire Council payout to high earner

The report – the 13th annual Town Hall Rich List – says NLC’s chief of health and social care was paid £615,000 in one year.

This was Janice Hewitt, who in October 2018, accepted a redundancy package after four years in post.

A council spokesperson said: “The Taxpayers’ Alliance is a private company and political pressure group lobbying for low taxation that refuses to disclose its financial backers. Unaccountably, it continues to be presented as some kind of grassroots campaign representing ordinary people.

“As always, the headline figures presented by the Taxpayers’ Alliance are not what they seem. The figures used clearly include staff leaving the organisation who have paid into a pension scheme throughout their working lives and who are entitled to pension payments. These payments are not set by the council.

“They also claim, for example, that someone who works for North Lanarkshire Council was paid in excess of quarter of a million pounds in annual salary. This is, of course, complete nonsense.

“Finally, they claim that an individual received what they claim is ‘remuneration’ of more than £600,000. The employee in question was entitled to a redundancy payment following a restructure and to access their pension entitlement in accordance with the pension regulations.

“In fact, the payback period for this redundancy was two years and so, from 2021, this represents a saving of £132,000 every single year.

“Unlike the Taxpayers’ Alliance, the council is completely transparent about its funding and pay arrangements and the annual accounts are available on our website.”

When setting its budget in March, NLC increased council tax by almost five per cent while faced with a “difficult task” of imposing £31 million in cuts, according to leader Jim Logue.

Taxpayers’ Alliance chief executive John O’Connell said:  “The coronavirus crisis means that frontline council services are more crucial than ever, but at the same time household budgets face an enormous squeeze from crushing council tax rises.

“There are plenty of talented people in local authorities who are focused on delivering more for less, but that is needed across the board. The country needs every council to cut out waste and prioritise key services.”

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