Soaring public sector wages have seen the number of Scots council staff earning six-figure sums reach almost 370 despite cuts to frontline services and some of the highest council tax hikes on record.

North Lanarkshire Council’s former IT boss Katrina Hassell has topped the Taxpayers’ Alliance Town Hall Rich List 2026 in Scotland after her 2024/25 pay packet totalled £281,680.

It comes after the Labour-run authority increased its council tax by ten per cent last year with a further seven per cent rise agreed this year.

Critics last night warned that a ‘bloated public sector’ was ‘feathering its nest’.

Ms Hassell’s remuneration package included £152,824 as ‘compensation for loss of office’ after her role was removed from the council’s management structure on top of her £120,780 salary. 

She was one of some 369 council employees across the country to earn at least £100,000 in 2024/25 – up by 24 on the previous financial year.

It comes after North Lanarkshire Council came under fire last year after the Mail revealed that that Ms Hassell and former finance chief Elaine Kemp received combined exit payments totalling almost £1million.

Scottish Conservative finance and local government spokesman Craig Hoy said: ‘When hard-pressed Scots are struggling with the SNP’s punitive taxes and cuts to services, they will be appalled at the huge sums being paid out to bureaucrats.’

The data also shows that Glasgow City Council’s Scottish Event’s Campus’ [SEC] former director of people and technology Gayle Shepherd and chief executive officer Peter Duthie took home Scotland’s second and third highest pay packets in 2024/25 totalling £255,953 and £240,758 respectively.

It also found that four of the top ten bonuses in the UK also went to SEC’s managing director Deborah McWilliams (£32,979), director of conference sales Kathleen Warden (£29,466), director of operations Colin Hartley (£27,993) and director of exhibition sales Daniel Thurlow (27,256).

According to the Taxpayers’ Alliance data, Glasgow City Council has 44 staff or staff from its arms-length organisations who earned at least £100,000 in 2024/25.

Edinburgh International Conference Centre chief executive Marshall Dallas also made the highest bonus list after receiving £22,343 on top of his £177,022 salary.

John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Taxpayers are caught in a pincer movement with a record-breaking tax burden on one side and a bloated public sector feathering its nest on the other.’

A spokesman for North Lanarkshire Council said: ‘The Taxpayers’ Alliance continues to present itself as a champion of taxpayers, despite operating as a political pressure group that does not disclose its financial backers, earnings, or tax contributions.

‘Unlike the Taxpayers’ Alliance, our accounts are publicly available online and include full details of senior staff pay.’