NEW figures have been released which show the highest paid council employees in south east London.

The data, which is released annually by TaxPayers' Alliance, shows how many council employees across the UK are paid more than £100,000.

Three council chief executives across south east London received a six-figure salary last year.

Jackie Belton, chief executive of Bexley, earned £188,000, which is nearly £27,000 more than Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.

Johnson is entitled to a salary of just over £161,000 each year.

Debbie Warren, chief executive for Greenwich, also earns more than the Prime Minister with a salary of £203,923.

The figures showed that Warren was the highest earner across all south east London councils.

Kim Wright, chief executive for Lewisham, earned the lowest out of the two with a salary of £184,950, which is still around £23,000 more than the PM.

The figures for Bromley Council were not available.

The News Shopper has contacted Bexley, Greenwich, Lewisham, and Dartford Council for a comment regarding the list.

See the list of the top paid council earners across all south east London:

Bexley:

Jackie Belton, Chief Executive: £188,000

Stuart Rowbotham, Director of adult social care: £176,087

Stephen Kitchman, Director of children's services: £169,600

Paul Thorogood, Director of finance and corporate services: £164,868

Director of public health: £136,858

Interim director of place: £135,000

Deputy director of legal and democratic services: £101,483

Greenwich:

D Warren: Chief executive: £203,923

K Delaney: Director of communities & environment: £185,385

S McClinton: Director of health and adult’s services: £169,028

F Kroll: Director of children’s services: £159,407

P Hack: Director of regeneration, enterprise and skills: £158,123

Director of regeneration, enterprise and skills: £158,123

Director of housing & safer communities: £147,218

Director of improvement: £141,765

Director of legal (monitoring officer): £141,765

Director of finance (section 151 officer) £141,765

Lewisham:

Kim Wright, Chief executive: £184,950

Kevin Sheehan, Executive director for housing, regeneration and public realm: £153,897

Tom Brown, Executive director for community services: £151,029

Kath Nicholson, Head of law and monitoring officer (part-time) 01-apr-20 to 16-jul-20: £172,906

Dartford:

Strategic director – internal: £113,430

Head of legal services: £88,712

A spokesperson for Bexley Council said: "We have a lean management structure and we have significantly reduced the number of senior officers working for the Council over recent years.

"Staff in senior roles at Bexley have extensive portfolios and are highly qualified professionals with extensive experience of running complex services for the benefit of residents.

"Attracting and retaining suitably qualified staff requires competitive remuneration.

"We will continue to ensure our remuneration allows us to attract and retain the excellent staff necessary to deliver for our residents.

"Our priority remains to focus resources on frontline services, which will include an extra £21.5m invested in services in 2022/23."

A spokesperson for Lewisham Council also said: "The salaries of our highest paid employees - and the number of employees earning a salary of more than £100,000 - are comparable with those of other inner London councils.”

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