Quango fat cats given 165 per cent pay rise

Education quango bosses have had pay rises of 165 per cent in 10 years, while teachers will have to wait for their 3.25 per cent rise to be phased in, the Liberal Democrats said yesterday, writes Stephen Castle.

Figures produced by the party's education spokesman, Don Foster, show average weekly payments to chief executives of education quangos have risen from pounds 547 to pounds 1,450 since 1987. That makes an average annual salary of pounds 75,400.

Average payments for quango chairmen have increased from pounds 184 per week to pounds 452 - a rise of 146 per cent since 1987 for people whose average working week is just 1.6 days.

Mr Foster said: "This shows how the Government looks after its own. Many a hard-pressed teacher or over-stretched local education authority administrator would love to receive such increases. Some of this money could more usefully be spent on holding down class sizes".