A report compiled by the TaxPayers Alliance has found that 4 Councils in Hampshire paid out a combined £2,904,362.34 on 221 settlement agreements in just 3 years between 2016-19.
221 Settlement Agreements
The news that 4 Hampshire Councils paid out a total of £2,904,362.34 on 221 settlement agreements was revealed by the TaxPayers Alliance
The TaxPayers Alliance commissioned the report to determine how much local authorities had paid out nationwide on settlement agreements between 2016-19. The report revealed that as a whole, local authorities entered into an incredible 6,980 settlement agreements in total during the period, with £98,059,105,00 paid out overall. The average payout was £14,048.59.
The highest total amount paid out during the 3 year period in question was by Stoke-on-Trent City Council, who paid out £8,552,433.00. This related to 371 settlement agreements, which was the highest number of settlement agreements entered into by any one Council. This included a pay out of £195,463.00 to one particular individual, the highest known individual pay out by a local authority during the 3 year period in question. The average pay out by Stoke-on-Trent City Council was £23,052.38
The highest average payout during the 3 year period was by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, with an average payout on their settlement agreements of £79,628.00. That Council paid out a total of £398,139.50 on 5 settlement agreements
The 4 Hampshire Councils which paid out a combined total of £2,904,362.34 on 221 settlement agreements were: Portsmouth City Council, Hampshire County Council, Gosport Borough Council, and Fareham Borough Council. The average pay out in relation to the 221 settlement agreements was £13,141.92
Of the combined total of £2,904,362.34 paid out on the 221 settlement agreements, the biggest contributor to the totals was Hampshire County Council, who paid out £1,887,946.92 on 170 settlement agreements during the 2016-19 period. The average pay out was £11,105.57
Portsmouth City Council paid out £593,064.65 on 31 settlement agreements during the 3 years in question (average pay out: £19,131.12), whilst Fareham Borough Council spent £411,225.95 on 19 settlement agreements (average pay out: £21,643.47). Meanwhile, Gosport Borough Council entered into just 1 settlement agreement during the period, paying out £12,124.82.
Two other Hampshire Councils were approached for information on their settlement agreement statistics by the TaxPayers Alliance. They were Havant Borough Council and East Hampshire District Council. Neither Council provided any information however.
Commenting on the findings for the the TaxPayers Alliance, representative Darwin Friend stated: “Though settlement agreements are sometimes necessary, councils need to remember that it’s ratepayers who foot the bill. These settlements have been signed at the same time that the vast majority of local authorities have increased council tax, meaning some have spent huge sums on hush money while hiking up local rates.“
Friend added: “Given that almost 50 councils have managed to spend nothing on these deals, it should be perfectly possible for those paying the most to do better and keep down the costs of individual golden goodbyes.“
Freedom of Information Requests
The statistics used in the TayPayers Alliance report, including on the 221 settlement agreements that were entered in to by the 4 Hampshire Councils, were obtained through the making of freedom of information requests. Moreover, a lot more of these freedom of information requests have been lodged in recent times by media outlets, as the large amounts being paid out by local authorities have come under growing scrutiny.
One freedom of information request revealed that the Walsall Council had entered into 30 settlement agreements, with a total pay out of £434,571.16 during a 3 year period between 2015 –18, with an average pay out of £14,485.71.
Other sectors of society that have also come under scrutiny in relation to their settlement agreement pay outs and which have been subject to freedom of information requests, include NHS Trusts, as we highlighted in a recent article
Responding to the fact that Hampshire County Council entered into 170 of the 221 settlement agreements, a spokesperson for Hampshire County Council stated: “I can confirm these settlement agreement figures were provided to the Taxpayers’ Alliance in July 2019 in response to a freedom of Information request, along with information that the settlements include payments in lieu of a notice period and redundancy payments.”
