An unnamed former Staffordshire County Council officer received an exit package totalling £455,000 after leaving the authority in 2024/25, according to the council’s accounts.
A new report from the TaxPayers’ Alliance says the officer was the highest remunerated council employee in the country in 2024/25.
The county council’s accounts do not identify the former officer’s role or the circumstances surrounding their departure. The authority has said it is unable to comment because of a non disclosure agreement covering the exit.
The TaxPayers’ Alliance annual Town Hall Rich List compiles information on council officer pay published by local authorities in their accounts.
According to the report, Staffordshire County Council chief executive Patrick Flaherty was the second highest paid council employee in the West Midlands in 2024/25, behind the unnamed officer, with total remuneration of £263,544. That figure includes salary and pension contributions.
A total of 17 non teaching county council employees received remuneration of more than £100,000, excluding pension contributions, in 2024/25. That was down from 21 in the previous year.
The figures cover the year before the 2025 local elections, when Reform UK took control of Staffordshire County Council after promising to cut wasteful spending.
Council leader Martin Murray said
“As a county council, we want to attract and retain the very best staff to help deliver our ambitions for the county and to safeguard public services.
“The salaries paid are in line with similar senior local authority roles in the country and we would expect this to be repaid many times over in the benefits delivered for this council and for the people we serve.”
The TaxPayers’ Alliance report says a record 4,733 council employees across the country received remuneration of more than £100,000 in 2024/25.
That total included 20 at Stoke on Trent City Council and a further 40 across Staffordshire’s eight district and borough councils.
TPA chief executive John O’Connell said
“Taxpayers are caught in a pincer movement with a record-breaking tax burden on one side and a bloated public sector feathering its nest on the other.
“Our latest Town Hall Rich List exposes a surging class of council bosses enjoying six-figure packages, even as they plead poverty, slash frontline services, and hike council tax bills far beyond inflation.”
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