People “sick to the stomach” over Sunderland Council’s eye-watering pay packages

Responding to the publication of the TaxPayers' Alliance's Town Hall Rich List 2023 (which found that Sunderland Council had the second highest earning council employee in the country receiving a package worth £573,550 and a second employee making the top 20 list with receiving nearly £260,000), Leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats on Sunderland Council Niall Hodson said:

"People will be rightly furious and sick to the stomach to learn that Sunderland Council has two of the top earning council employees in the whole country.

"It is absolutely unforgivable that our money is being used on eye-watering remuneration packages. It is especially so at a time when Council bosses continue to hike Council Tax during a cost of living crisis at the same time as claiming that there isn't any money to fund decent services like keeping the streets clean, repairing our crumbling roads or tackling crime and anti-social behaviour.

"Sunderland Council has a history of awarding astronomical pay-offs to staff who are leaving - often with confidentiality clauses attached. Council chiefs urgently need to stop treating Council Tax payers as their personal cash cow and end this practice of awarding themselves astronomical pay packages and pay-offs."