Public sector fat cats top £100,000

THE average pay of public sector 'fat cats' has burst through the £100,000 a year mark, it has been revealed.

Bosses of quangos, councils, the NHS and housing associations saw their salaries shoot up by more than double the rate of inflation.

A survey of 400 public sector organisations found that the average pay of a chief executive rose by 7.1% from £94,000 to £100,700.

The taxpayer-financed rises provoked-anger in the private sector where pay has been depressed over the past two years while workers and managers shoulder the burden of increased taxation and red tape.

The survey was carried out by The Guardian, the newspaper with a virtual monopoly of public sector jobs advertising. The 7.1% rise was more than double the

2.9% inflation rate and almost 3% higher than the average rise in national earnings last year.

Top public sector earner last year was David Bennett, chief of the Sanctuary Housing Association, whose package totalled £213,000.

Second was Tony Hall, who runs the hugely-subsidised Royal Opera House, on £205,000. Housing agency Anchor Trust paid its boss John Belcher £202,000. Best paid council boss was Kent's £180,000 chief executive Mike Pitt.

Highest earner in the NHS was Jonathan Michael, who earned £178,000 at Guy's and St Thomas's Trust in London. The top five received more than the Prime Minister, who is paid £175,000.

Next came four local authority chief executives - Lin Homer, Birmingham, £165,000; Stewart Ashurst, Essex, £160,000; Darryl Stephenson-East Riding of Yorkshire, £140,000; John Sinnott, Leicestershire, £130,000. Tenth was Genesis housing association chief Anu Vedi, on £120,000.

There has been a boom in public sector jobs in recent years. Tories estimate that by the end of Tony Blair's second term, the Government payroll will have ballooned by 600,000 jobs at a cost of £19bn - equal to 6p on income tax.