ITV’s TONIGHT programme reveals the public sector bosses who earn more than the Prime Minister and reporter Jonathan Maitland presents the “WONGAS” to Britain’s highest paid public servants.
Channel 4's director of programmes, Kevin Lygo, is the highest paid public sector boss according to figures from the 2008 to 2009 financial year.
Research for ITV’s Tonight programme has revealed Mr Lygo received £1,136,000 in the last financial year - five times more than the Prime Minister, who earned just over £193,000.
The figures show the chief executive of Royal Mail, Adam Crozier, was the second highest paid public sector worker after he earned £995,000.
The third on the list was Network Rail’s chief executive, Iain Coucher, who earned £830,000.
The Director General of the BBC – Mark Thompson – with a salary of £664,000, came top of the quango pay league. And Joanna Killian, the chief executive of Essex County Council and Brentwood District Council was Britain’s highest paid town hall boss with a total salary of £247,164.
Kevin Lygo’s earnings of £1.136 million were made up of £773,000 from his salary, £13,000 in benefits and £350,000 in bonus from a long term investment scheme. Lygo has taken a 25% pay-cut for the following financial year.
Channel 4 is a public sector company but funded entirely by commercial activities.
In an exclusive interview for Tonight, Channel 4 Chairman Luke Johnson said: “He has volunteered a pay cut. Last year's total income for him included a long term incentive plan, which was a bonus spread over several years all payable in one year.
"The truth of the matter is I am sure that if Channel 4 could recruit the best talent, at less money, I would be more than happy to recommend that. But we believe that we need the best people and we have to compete against the likes of ITV and Sky who offer people options, they offer people significantly more money and in truth you know we pay the market rate because otherwise I don't think we would get the best.”
Adam Crozier’s pay was made up of £633,000 in salary, £139,000 in bonus and a further £17,000 in benefits, plus a £206,000 cash supplement in place of a pension payment.
A spokesman for Royal Mail said: “Adam Crozier, Group Chief Executive of Royal Mail, received a £995,000 pay package in 2008/9, which was less than the previous year despite the fact that Royal Mail Group doubled its operating profits in that period from £162 million to £321 million and hit its quality of service targets, and despite the recession and a shortfall in mail volumes as a result of intense competition in the postal market and the growth of email and other forms of electronic communication."
Network Rail’s status as a public sector company is controversial. The National Audit Office says that it is state owned and that it’s debts of around £22 billion are underwritten by the government. However Network Rail told Tonight: “Network Rail is a private company delivering a public service. It is funded through a combination of payments from train operators, government grant and its own commercial activity. It has no shareholders and its profits are reinvested into the railway.
"Since Network Rail took over the running of the railway in 2002 it has delivered best value and has cut the costs of running the network by billions of pounds.
"Today, the network carries more passengers than any time in the last 60 years, at record levels of punctuality and travelling by train is safer than ever - in fact there is no safer form of transport. As Network Rail embarks on an ambitious expansion programme there is wide consensus that we must continue to build a bigger and better railway.
"Like other private companies Network Rail sets its pay levels by sensible policies and follows private sector best practice. Network Rail is confident that it will continue to deliver best value to the British people and will reduce year-on-year the cost of running the railway.”
Cllr David Finch of Essex County Council said chief executive Joanna Killian’s salary was commensurate with her skills and responsibilities:
“Remember Essex is bigger than Waitrose in turnover. I don’t think necessarily that it looks bad at all. I think when you compare the amount of work she does and the amount of responsibility she has. I think she’s paid the appropriate amount.
“Our Chief Executive has huge responsibilities both in terms of the highways network within Essex and the maintenance of that, the waste strategy and how we deal with the mountain of waste in Essex, how we take care of the growing population of elderly within our county, how we make sure we deliver services and keep our tax as low as possible,” he said.
A survey conducted by YouGov for the Tonight programme, which airs on ITV1 on Monday 2nd November at 8pm, revealed the British public believe that some public sector salaries are too high – nevertheless, 72% felt that people who run public sector organisations should get paid about the same as their public sector counterparts.
The survey was conducted by asking a representative sample of 2042 people to assess the pay of ten of the leading bosses in the public sector. Respondents were told what the bodies they are running do, and then asked to consider how much they were paid. They were asked if they thought they earned too much, too little or the right amount.
These were the ten leading public sector bosses included in the poll:
Adam Crozier - Chief Executive of the Royal Mail Group
Mark Thompson - Director General of the BBC
Hector Sants - Chief Executive of the Financial Services Authority
David Higgins - Chief Executive of the Olympic Delivery Authority
Iain Coucher - Chief Executive of Network Rail
Kevin Lygo - Director of Programmes for Channel 4
Peter Hendy - Chief Executive of Transport for London
Dr Ian Roxburgh - Chief Executive of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (no longers works at the NDA)
Ed Richards - Chief Executive of OFCOM
Paul Deighton - Chief Executive of London Olympic Games Organising Committee
The figures came from annual reports for the financial year 2008-2009. Pension payments were not included.
The results showed that 92% of those asked thought Kevin Lygo’s salary was too high, 91% thought Adam Crozier earned too much and 88% thought Iain Coucher’s pay was too high.
YouGov poll about public sector pay for ITV’s TONIGHT programme
http://www.yougov.co.uk/extranets/ygarchives/content/pdf/ITV_23-Oct-2009.pdf
