Council finance boss gets £500,000 golden handshake despite running Britain's 'worst' department

The council said to be England's worst has agreed a £500,000 golden handshake for its finance chief. In a deal critics described as 'a reward for failure', Liverpool City Council's director of finance Phil Halsall, 50, will receive a lump sum of £80,000 when he takes early retirement in April. The authority has also agreed to enhance his pension by five years, worth another £420,000. The pay-off to the £180,000-a-year executive comes months after the Audit Commission said Liverpool was the worst financially managed authority in England.

It brings to more than £1million the packages awarded to just three senior bureaucrats since a falling-out between its Liberal Democrat leader and its chief executive two years ago.Last night a TaxPayers' Alliance spokesman said: 'This is a massive payout for a director who has presided over shambolic finances at the council.'This is nothing but a reward for failure and an insult to hard-pressed taxpayers who foot the bill.'

Read more...