The former chief executive of Ealing Council, Paul Najsarek, who left in December 2021, received a £325,047 pay package, accounts for 2021/22 have revealed and been published in the The Taxpayers’ Alliance’s annual Town Hall Rich List.
The Taxpayers Alliance is calling on residents and Ealing councillors across the borough to “ask questions about bumper pay packets” such as those handed out to Mr Nahjsarek and others.
Prior to joining Ealing Council in February 2016, Mr Najsarek was acting chief executive of Harrow Council and chief executive of Bolton Council.
The breakdown of his 2021-22 £325,047 package consisted of £192,465 salary, £94,859 for loss of office and £37,723 pension contributions.
The Taxpayers Alliance said of Mr Najsarek’s pay package and other people receiving staggering pay packages across the country: “Virtually every council in the country is raising council tax (with a few notable exceptions like Harlow), often by the maximum of 4.99 per cent. When we are travelling around the country talking to residents about council tax, this is often the first thing that comes up: why are the bosses paid so much when my bills are always going up? ”
The Taxpayers Alliance says it is calling on councillors and members of the public to challenge councils over how they pay their executives. They said: “Residents and councillors should ask questions about bumper pay packets. We publish the Town Hall Rich List so everyone knows exactly what kind of amounts senior staff are getting. The information is in the public domain, but for the layman it’s too tricky to find, and councillors themselves rarely have the bottle to confront their officers about it. Now there’s no excuse. Unleash the armchair auditors!”
Speaking to EALING.NEWS, Ealing Green Party chair Neil Reynolds raised his concerns over the high pay packages of Ealing Council executives. He said: “As the council raises tax, it is disappointing to see such large sums being paid by the council to individual employees.”
Mr Reynolds added: “The council frequently and understandably claims financial hardship as a result of the Tory government. Awarding senior staff such large sums seems hard to justify given the cuts in services residents have had to endure.”
An Ealing Council spokesperson said: “This is the extract from published financial statements we are required to disclose and which was used in the article, the figure is made up of salary, compensation for loss of office and employer pension contributions. We are unable to comment any further than what is published in the statement of accounts.”
Click here to download and read the 2021-22 Ealing Council statement of accounts.
Last month, Mr Najsarek was announced as the interim Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, following the retirement on 31 March 2023 of previous Ombudsman Michael King.
