Chesterfield Borough Council paid out £2.5million in staff bonuses in 2022 - the largest bonus bill of any local authority

The TaxPayers' Alliance, which released the figure following a Freedom of Information request, has called on the council to “urgently explain why on earth they thought this spending was appropriate."

The authority revealed that during the 2022 calendar year, 139 employees received a bonus as part of a contractual guaranteed minimum bonus scheme.

This is calculated weekly and paid on a monthly basis with their salary. The value of the bonus payments was £2.5million.

The TaxPayers' Alliance confirmed Chesterfield's bonus bill was the largest of any local authority that responded to their FOI request.

Next was Camden with a bill of £1,239,104.43.

Elliot Keck, investigations campaign manager at the TaxPayers' Alliance said: "These bumper bonuses are paid for by local residents.

"While households tighten their belts, council staff have been filling their pockets.

"The council should urgently explain why on earth they thought this spending was appropriate."

The bonuses were paid out of the council's Housing Revenue Account. The total value of the bonuses was almost equal to the size of the budget deficit within the council's HRA, which stood at £2.9 million in 2022/23.

Given out to just 139 staff, this means the average bonus received per member of staff was just under £18,000 per person.

A Chesterfield Borough Council spokesperson said: “A small proportion of our workforce is paid in line with nationally agreed terms and conditions which are set out in what is known as the National Joint Council (NJC) Red Book, which includes a productivity bonus scheme.

“The staff, who fulfil critical roles within the council’s housing service receive a basic salary and then a bonus payment per job completed to incentivise their productivity, with the totality of payments made to staff fully accounted for within the council’s budget forecasts.

“The NJC Red Book is an established payment model just like the NJC Green Book, which is the payment model the council uses to pay the majority of its workforce.

“It is also the case that the wages of the staff in receipt of productivity bonus payments are paid from the council’s Housing Revenue Account, which is a ring-fenced budget and legally separated from the council’s General Fund account.”