A council boss running a ‘bankrupt’ local authority in one of Britain’s poorest boroughs is being paid £1500 per day, the Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Paul Martin’s appointment as the new interim chief executive of Newham Council in East London is now believed to have made him the highest paid local authority boss in the country.
Mr Martin has been hired by Labour-run Newham to work just four days per week, which means his annual salary based on his daily rate would be £312,000 per year.
This makes him better paid than the previous reported highest-earning council boss, Joanne Roney, the managing director of Birmingham City Council, whose annual salary is £295,000.
Mr Martin’s salary is also almost twice more than Prime Minister Keir Starmer‘s pay of £166,786 per year.
The chief executive’s ‘astronomically high’ salary has angered Newham councillors, including Labour ones.
They told the MoS the local authority is ‘bankrupt’, as it needed £67m in an emergency bailout from the Government in May in order to maintain vital services for its 360,000 residents.
The crisis-hit council was also served with a Best Value Notice from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, over concerns it was over-spending taxpayers’ money.
Paul Martin (pictured) was appointed as the new interim chief executive of Newham Council in East London
Mr Martin has been hired by Labour-run Newham to work just four days per week, which means his annual salary based on his daily rate would be £312,000 per year
The Notice is a precursor to the Government sending in commissioners to run the council.
Mr Martin, 64, a career civil servant, was hired by Newham in July after its then chief executive, Abi Gbago, left after receiving a payout of £239,000, said council sources.
Ms Gbago’s compensation was voted by councillors at a secret Town Hall meeting in July, where the press and public were banned.
The sudden departure of Ms Gbago has led to yet more scrutiny on the crisis-hit council’s mayor, Rokhsana Fiaz, Britain’s first elected female Muslim mayor.
Ms Fiaz, who is believed to be friends with London mayor Sadiq Khan, has seen at least six chief executives leave Newham Council during her eight-year tenure.
In May 2022, Ms Fiaz faced bullying allegations, when 26 Newham Labour councillors wrote a letter of complaint to the party headquarters.
In the letter, the councillors complained that their ‘fear of being bullied and harassed by Ms Fiaz in both public and private is intolerable.’
Ms Fiaz also tried to sue her own council for race and sex discrimination, but withdrew her complaint in December, with the local authority agreeing to pay her legal costs of £36,000.
The previous reported highest-earning council boss was Joanne Roney (pictured), the managing director of Birmingham City Council, whose annual salary is £295,000
Newham Independents, one of the opposition groups in the borough, has claimed that the council has paid over £4m in compensation to employees in the past eight years of Ms Fiaz’s tenure.
The group is making the claim in leaflets it is posting through letterboxes in the borough.
In February 2022, a series of Freedom of Information requests made by the GMB Union revealed that Newham Council paid £2.8m in compensation after signing 63 non-disclosure agreements with employees.
Newham is one the country’s poorest boroughs, where the rate of overall poverty is at 38 per cent, according to data produced by the Trust for London.
Last night, Newham Council did not comment on Mr Martin’s salary.
But on the former chief executive’s departure, a spokesman said: ‘Ms Gbago’s departure was covered in an agreed statement published on the Council’s website.’
The Labour Party did not comment on the letter it received from 26 Labour councillors accusing Ms Fiaz of bullying.
But a spokesman said: ‘The Labour Party takes all complaints seriously and they are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures.’
