Introduction
Scrutinising staffing costs at local and national level is a hallmark of our mission to make government more accountable to taxpayers. This principle underpins our annual Town Hall Rich List, which details remuneration of the highest paid people across local government.[1] It should also apply to municipal government.
The Greater London Authority (GLA) is one the biggest local authorities in the UK; it includes a number of well-known bodies and a powerful mayor. Sadiq Khan, the current mayor of London, has complained about financial woes, while the staffing costs of City Hall employees have risen by 82 per cent, from £36 million in 2016-17 to £65.5 million in the 2020-21 proposed budget.[2] Meanwhile, the mayor has increased the band D council tax precept by just under nine per cent in 2019-20, and London taxpayers have gone from paying £295 in 2015-16 to £332 in 2020-21 for the GLA.[3],[4]
The City Hall Rich List details the employees working for the Greater London Authority, Transport for London, London Fire Brigade and Metropolitan Police whose total remuneration exceeds £100,000.
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Key findings
- There were at least 654 people employed by the GLA and its subsidiary bodies in 2018-19 who received more than £100,000. Of these, 154 received over £150,000 in total remuneration. In 2015-16, 653 received more than £100,000 and 147 employees collected over £150,000.
- In 2018-19 the body with the highest number of employees with remuneration in excess of £100,000 was Transport for London, with 518 employees. Transport for London also had the highest number of employees receiving more than £150,000, with 114.
- The highest remunerated employee in 2018-19 was the commissioner of Transport for London, who received £508,301 in total remuneration.
- A total of 28 employees received remuneration in excess of a quarter of a million pounds in 2018-19, compared to 29 members of staff in 2015-2016.
- The mayor of London himself received £150,644 in 2018-19, with £904 being claimed through expenses.
- In 2015-16 there were seven members of the mayoral team who received more than £100,000 in total remuneration and of these, one received in excess of £150,000. In 2018-19 there were 16 employees in the mayor’s office who had a total remuneration of more than £100,000. Four of these got more than £150,000, including the mayor.
- The mayoral team in 2018-19 was double the size of Boris Johnson’s team in his final year as mayor in 2015-16.
- Transport for London paid out the most in bonuses and performance related pay to senior employees, paying out at least £1,728,206 in 2018-19. The highest bonus paid was to Michael Brown who received £133,586.
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[1] Simmonds, S, Town Hall Rich List 2020, TaxPayers’ Alliance, 15 April 2020,
[2] BBC, London City Hall staffing costs increase by 82%, 16 January 2020, www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-51126716, (accessed 23 January 2020).
[3] Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, 2015-16 Council Tax (average Band D) and % change by individual authority, 26 March 2015
[4] Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, 2020-21 Council Tax (average Band D) and % change on 2019-20,
individual local authorities, 25 March 2020.