Westmorland and Furness Council considers over £1m in senior leadership cuts
Council aims for financial sustainability through restructuring
Westmorland and Furness Council has announced it could make over a million pounds of cuts to its senior leadership.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) reported on Tuesday that 21 members of staff at the council earned over £100,000 a year.
The information came from the Town Hall Rich List research by the TaxPayers’ Alliance, a pressure group which advocates for a ‘lower tax economy’.
The council said in its response to the story that it is in a consultation to ‘reshape and reduce’ its senior leadership team, with a forecast saving of £1.75m yearly.
It said this is to ‘ensure the council remains financially sustainable’.
Now, the council has released a further statement on the consultation and what it will entail, after the LDRS asked whether there will be any redundancies, how many there would be if so and whether there will be any salary cuts.
A spokesperson for Westmorland and Furness Council said: “A consultation on a re-shape and reduction of our senior leadership team began in March with the aim of a new structure being implemented from July 2026.
“Three years after being formed as a new unitary council, and following the successful achievement of a number of key milestones, this review will reshape the senior leadership structure to align to the council’s transformation plan and support our commitment to remaining financially sustainable.
“The budget setting meeting in February laid out the council’s financial challenges, with the need to bring in a range of cost-saving and revenue-raising plans to offset a substantial loss in core funding brought about by a change in government funding priorities.
“Other staff-related actions to reduce costs include a voluntary redundancy scheme and continued re-shaping of services.”
On the Town Hall Rich List, the council had staff earning salaries ranging from just over the threshold at £102,500 all the way up to former chief executive Sam Plum, who earned £182,391 a year, before retiring in December.
Other top salaries included Angela Jones, director of thriving places, on £150,564, and Paul Robinson, director of enabler services, Cath Whalley, director of adult social care, and Steph Cordon, director of thriving communities, all of whom are on £142,607 annually.