City council and Bristol Waste directors given £65K exit payoffs, accounts reveal

A city council director and another at Bristol Waste were each given taxpayer-funded golden handshakes worth more than £65,000 last year, it has been revealed. Bristol City Council director of adult social care Stephen Beet left with £69,004 severance pay in June 2023, according to the local authority’s annual draft accounts, which have just been published.

Council-owned Bristol Waste’s finance and strategy director Chris Holme received £65,100 compensation for loss of office in November, the 2023/24 figures show. It took his total remuneration to £154,858 for just eight months’ work from April 2023 to his departure, including £84,250 in salary, fees and allowances.

Meanwhile, the number of compulsory redundancies at the city council more than quadrupled from eight in 2022/23 to 34 last year, although the total cost of staff exit packages dropped by nearly two-thirds. Between April 1, 2023, and March 31 this year, 72 employees were given a combined £1.2million in settlements to leave the local authority, an average of about £16,200 each.

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That was a big reduction on the £2.9million total exit payments to 106 staff in 2022/23 – roughly £27,500 per person on average. The accounts show that the money awarded to Mr Beet was the only one for City Hall employees that exceeded £60,000.

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Seven others were more than £40,000, 11 were between £20,001 and £40,000, and 53 were £20,000 or less. Of those, 28 of the 34 staff who were made compulsorily redundant received £20,000 or less.

The other 38 that attracted exit payments are listed as “other departures”, such as voluntary redundancies, but these were a significant fall on the 98 in the same category in 2022/23. Asked to comment, a Bristol Waste spokesperson said: “We can confirm that the former director of finance and strategy received compensation for loss of office, in line with standard business practices.

“As a company owned by Bristol City Council, any amounts paid in compensation by Bristol Waste Company are published within the Bristol City Council annual accounts.” Mr Holme is not the first senior leader at the waste firm to part company with a large payoff.

Managing director Tony Lawless received £62,317 compensation for loss of office in July 2022 while finance director Adam Henshaw, who left the same day, was paid £65,155 in severance. Bristol Energy managing director David Haigh left the ultimately doomed council-owned business in December 2018 with a £47,000 payoff as part of a £253,000 package that year, including salary, fees, allowances and pension contributions.

The city council was asked to comment on the exit payments in the most recent accounts but said it would not discuss individual contracts or terms of employment. However, it has had plenty to say about staff severance packages in previous years when the annual accounts have been published.

In June 2023, when figures showed the cost of exit payments had tripled in 12 months to almost £3million, the local authority said this was because of a succession planning policy that allowed employees to take voluntary redundancy, receive a payoff and be replaced by more junior staff who wanted progression to develop their career. It said this would ultimately save taxpayers money in the long run because of a lower overall salary bill.

At the time, a spokesperson also hailed the dramatic fall in the number of compulsory redundancies, from 46 in 2021/22 to just eight the following year, saying: “The low number of compulsory redundancies reflects our commitment to the trade unions and workforce that we would delete vacant roles and use other means to reduce posts wherever practicable.” However, the council has not explained why there was such a huge increase again in compulsory redundancies from those eight in 2022/23 to 34 in the most recent financial year.

The draft 2023/24 accounts, which have not yet been audited, said the number and costs of exit packages included payments agreed at the end of 2023/24 but not paid. They said: “Costs include the costs of early payment of pension in the cases of early retirement.”