TfL’s £100k+ earners grow, but staff costs stay stable

Remuneration

The number of Transport for London staff receiving more than £100,000 remuneration rose to 521 in 2019/20, up from 468 in 2018/19. TfL’s overall staff costs remained stable.  

Of those earning more than £100,000:

• 178 had a base salary exceeding £100k, up from 171 in 2018/19 
• 130 had a base salary of £80,000-£100,000 but were paid overtime taking them over £100k 
• 131 had a base salary below £80k but went over £100k through overtime 
• 82 received voluntary severance that took them over £100k (down from 117 in 2018/19). 

Many overtime payments were for specialist engineers working overnight and weekends on major Tube and rail projects. 

As well as the 521 TfL staff earning over £100k, 36 staff employed by Crossrail Ltd, a subsidiary of TfL, did so too.

TfL’s headcount (including agency staff) stood at 27,603 full-time equivalent (FTE) on 31 March, up from 27,280 on 31 March 2019.

In all, 14,810 of the workforce earned more than £50,000 (including salaries, fees, performance-related pay, benefits in kind, lump sums and termination payments, but excluding pension contributions). 

TfL’s total remuneration costs in 2019/20 were £2.179bn, almost identical to the £2.177bn in 2018/19 and down from £2.250bn in 2017/18.

Commissioner Mike Brown received remuneration of £519,661 (up from £508,301 in 2018/19), of which £372,227 was salary, £145,225 performance-related pay for 2018/19, and £2,209 benefits in kind. 

Remuneration of other chief officers (many including pension contributions) include:

• Mark Wild, Crossrail chief executive, £479,531
• Chris Sexton, Crossrail deputy chief executive, £436,554 (including £100,000 performance-related pay for 2018/19)
• Lestor Hampson, property development director, £403,333, (including £179,638 performance-related pay for 2018/19)
• Gareth Powell, managing director for surface transport, £386,085
• Stuart Harvey, director of major projects, £357,755
• Shashi Verma, director of strategy and chief technology officer, £327,689
• Vernon Everitt, managing director for customers, communications and technology,  £316,450
• Graeme Craig, director of commercial development, £255,629
• Alex Williams, director of city planning, £236,829
• Helen Murphy, director of TfL consulting and international operations, £206,758
• Howard Smith, Crossrail chief operations officer, £205,328
• Lilli Matson, chief safety, health and environment officer, £204,417 
• Michèle Dix, managing director, Crossrail 2, £202,599.

Severance payouts total £18.6m

TfL paid out £18.6m in non-compulsory exit packages (‘severance’) to 239 staff in 2019/20. This was down from the £30.7m paid to 475 staff in 2018/19, and the £51.4m paid to 704 staff in 2017/18. 

Former group financial controller Sarah Bradley received  £278,686. She left TfL on 31 July 2019 but received total remuneration in the financial year of £361,220. A spokesman told LTT her exit package consisted of six month’s salary in lieu of notice, a one-off severance payment and untaken leave. The terms were set when she joined TfL.

The accounts record one severance payment of over £400,000 and two between £350,000 and £400,000, all to un-named officials. Said the spokesman: “They received what is called ‘pension augmentation’ which is where someone agrees to a lower voluntary severance agreement on the basis that we top-up their pension to the amount they would have received if they continued to work until age 60. For accounting purposes the total amount TfL would pay for this is listed in the year they left the organisation.”

He added: “As a result of the Dawn Jarvis review, TfL has introduced new arrangements, which have reduced the notice periods of senior staff. These will reduce any future severance paid as new appointments will be made on this basis.”