Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Spellar Excerpts

Monday 4th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr John Spellar (Warley) (Lab)]

18. What his policy is on redundancy payments to senior local government officers; and if he will make a statement.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Brandon Lewis)]

Excessive payouts to senior local authority staff have been too frequent. Thanks to the Localism Act 2011, local taxpayers can now see and challenge how their money is being spent on pay and reward, including redundancies. We are also scrapping regulations that saw councils pay out inflated severance packages to chief executives in order to avoid a lengthy and costly review process.

[Mr Spellar]

When the chief executive of Tory Kent county council left after 16 months with a £420,000 pay- off, the then local government Minister, now Tory party chairman, the right hon. Member for Welwyn Hatfield (Grant Shapps), described this as “disturbing” and said:

“I find dipping into the public purse to make such an eye-watering pay-off unacceptable”.

Yet shortly thereafter the Minister’s colleague, the Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General, hired this individual as director general of civil service reform. Does he think that this sets a good example?

[Brandon Lewis]

The right hon. Gentleman has outlined exactly why the changes we are making are so needed.