From the Taxpayers Alliance in April ‘26:
Revealed – Wiltshire Council bosses earning over £100k a year
By Local Democracy Reporter Peter Davison
The number of bosses at Wiltshire Council earning more than £100,000 a year has been revealed.
The TaxPayers’ Alliance has published its annual Town Hall Rich List, with the register identifying six people who earned £100,000 or more in the financial year 2024-25.
However, Wiltshire Council’s own figures show 25 employees received over £100,000 in total remuneration during the period.
Among them are chief executive Lucy Townsend, whose salary in the period was £180,933. The council’s corporate director of place, Parvis Khansari, earned £146,807, while the authority’s director of legal and governance, Perry Holmes, and director of public health, Kate Blackburn, both earned £127,137.
The council’s director of HR and organisational development Tamsin Kielb earned £102,262, while former chief executive Terence Herbert, who was in post until August 19 2024, earned £90,499 of his £191,888 salary.
The top salaries compare favourably to those of neighbouring local authorities.
Swindon Borough Council’s Sam Mowbray earned £179,819 while Hampshire’s CEO Carolyn Williamson raked in £252,317.
In Somerset, the interim chief officer Maria Christofi earned £250,905 while Dorset’s Matt Prosser earned £178,000.
The Taxpayers’ Alliance was scathing of the salaries earned by ‘town hall’ bosses, pointing out that 4,733 council staff now earn more than £100,000 a year across the country – an increase of 21 per cent on last year.
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers are caught in a pincer movement with a record-breaking tax burden on one side and a bloated public sector feathering its nest on the other.
“Our latest Town Hall Rich Sunday evening List exposes a surging class of council bosses enjoying six-figure packages, even as they plead poverty, slash frontline services, and hike council tax bills far beyond inflation.
“Residents can see exactly how many local bureaucrats are receiving plush packages and judge for themselves whether they’re getting value for money.”
Tamsin Kielb, Wiltshire Council’s director of HR and organisational development, said, “These roles are responsible for multi-million pound budgets in a highly complex organisation.
“In order to attract and retain the best and most capable people to deliver value for money you have to pay a suitable wage.
“We benchmark our salaries within the sector and wider job market, which enables us to strike the right balance of attracting talented candidates to our organisation while being as responsible as possible with public money.
“When senior salaries in the private sector are compared to senior salaries in the public sector, the taxpayer gets very good value for money.”
The average salary in Wiltshire in the same financial year was £36,597, according to government statistics, while in the same year the typical FTSE 100 chief executive was on a package of around £4.6 million, according to the High Pay Centre.