No cost of living crisis here! Number of public sector staff earning more than £150,000 rose 8.5% to 599 as Covid hammered the country with HS2 chief on £625k… and mandarin who boasted of Peloton sessions while working from home saw pay band go up £5k
The number of civil servants earning more than £150,000 rose by 8.5 per cent last year as the country was hammered by Covid.
Some 599 officials were above the threshold in the latest list released by the government – up from 552 in 2020 – with HS2 and Network Rail again dominating.
The Cabinet Office argued that some of the increase was down to organisational changes – but the spike in numbers sparked anger as Britons face a mounting cost of living crisis.
HS2 chief Mark Thurston kept hold of the top slot, with a total remuneration between £620,000 and £625,000.
That is around four times the salary of Prime Minister Boris Johnson – although it has stayed the same for the last couple of years.
Chief executive Andrew Haines was second with a package of up to £590,000.
HS2 chief Mark Thurston (right) kept hold of the top slot, with a total remuneration between £620,000 and £625,000. Chief executive Andrew Haines (left) was second with a package of up to £590,000
It was revealed last week that the headline CPI rate of inflation has hit 5.4 per cent – with fears it will go even higher
The body’s chief financial officer Jeremy Westlake was listed as earning £415,000 to £420,000.
David Peattie, the head of the Nuclear Decommissioning Agency, was not far behind on up to £400,000.
And Richard Moriarty, head of the Civil Aviation Authority, was the only other person not from HS2 or Network Rail to make the top 10, with pay of up to £350,000.
Many of the officials saw their pay frozen in a year that saw the government still scrambling to cope with the pandemic, and the economy struggling to recover.
Sarah Healey, the permanent secretary at the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport department, saw her pay band rise from £160,000-165,000 to £165,000-£170,000.
She was previously criticised for boasting that work from home meant she had more time to exercise. ‘I have a Peloton and I can just get on my bike whenever I have a teeny bit of time,’ she said.
Chief medical officer Chris Whitty featured on the list with pay of up to £210,000, while chief science officer Sir Patrick Vallance was listed as earning up to £185,000. Both were unchanged from last year.
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Taxpayers will be shocked by the scale of these public sector pay hikes.
‘While some Whitehall bosses may have earned their keep, families are being expected to fund mega salaries for mandarins while enduring a cost of living crisis and record tax burden.
‘Ministers must get the civil service salary bill under control before asking taxpayers for any more of their money.’
Sarah Healey, the permanent secretary at the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport department, saw her pay band rise from £160,000-165,000 to £165,000-£170,000
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