Council lets £100,000 executive work from home - in Australia
Jill Sherman, Whitehall Editor
A council chief will still be paid to manage his town hall's finances for the next year despite emigrating to Australia.
Mat Taylor, 44, executive director and chief finance officer of Fenland District Council, in Cambridgeshire, wanted to leave his £100,000 job to move to Adelaide with his family in October. However, he will continue to be paid £20,000 for one day's work a week for the next 12 months to manage Fenland's £18million budget from Australia via video link and e-mail.
The decision was condemned by the Taxpayers' Alliance, which said that there had to be a more efficient way to cover his role. “It's a bit worrying when ordinary families are struggling to make ends meet whilst council executives are sunning themselves in warmer climes,” a spokesman said.
Geoff Harper, Conservative councillor for Doddington, defended the decision, saying that the authority did not want to lose Mr Taylor's expertise. “The council is confident it will work for both us and Mat,” he said. “We are the first local authority in the country to fully utilise modern technology to deliver a highly cost effective solution. Retaining Mat's services is much more cost-efficient than bringing in an interim finance director.”
A council spokesman said that Mr Taylor would continue to monitor the district council's finances from Australia but the rest of his job would be delegated to other members of staff until the appointment of a replacement finance officer next year.
Sandra Claxton, the council's chief executive, said the only other option would have been to pay an interim manager £800 a day until a replacement was found. She said that Mr Taylor's “excellent finance management” had played a pivotal role in turning round the council's finance.