Nearly 400 staff earned more than £50,000 at Leeds City council in 2019/20

Statistics published by the authority via the datamill north website also revealed 19 of those staff were paid more than £100,000 a year.

The council says it has reduced larger salaries in accordance with the tens of millions of pounds worth of cuts made for its 2021/22 revenue budget.

The highest paid member of staff was council chief executive Tom Riordan, who earned £183,924.12 during the course of the year.

A total of £36,680.72 in expenses were also claimed by those on more than £50,000 a year.

Last year, the council employed 12,666 full-time equivalent staff, and had an annual payroll of £423.9m.

A Leeds City Council Spokesperson said: “The salaries paid to our staff are consistent with the duties they are required to undertake and the responsibilities they have. With all salary grades being benchmarked and evaluated according to the size and scope of each individual role.

“Like all council’s we have faced significant budgetary challenges and have worked to reduce staffing numbers in response. Over the last 12-month period, for which we have data available, the number of staff earning over £100,000 has fallen from 22 to 19, representing a 13.6 percent decrease of staff at that salary point.

“The budget savings proposals that are incorporated into the Council’s 2021/22 budget do not involve any reductions in the level of salaries paid to staff. This is due to salaries being bound by national and local terms of conditions of service and contractual terms.

“However, the budget proposals do seek to deliver £56.1m of budget savings and delivery of these savings require an estimated reduction of 710 full time equivalent posts”