REVEALED: Britain’s asylum capital where services are buckling under migrant strain – and Chief Exec takes home £567k

The fat cat’s whopping payout was the largest for all council employees in Britain last year and was made up of her eye-watering £209,472 salary and a further £357,317 in pension payments.

It means O’Donnell’s remuneration last was over three times the Prime Minister’s salary, something many Glaswegians have reacted to with fury after the council enacted the biggest council tax rise in 20 years, pushing Band D bills over £2,000 for the first time.

Glasgow City Council dominated the list of highest paid employees, with 42 members earning over £100,000 last year and 12 earning more than the Prime Minister's salary of £172,000.

These 42 fat cats cost taxpayers £6.5million in remuneration last year alone.

Glasgow's top ten fat cats

Aside from fat cat payouts, another drain on Glasgow’s finances comes from the high level of migrants it is supporting across the city.

Currently, Scotland’s second city hosts 3,953 asylum seekers sent by the Home Office, with another 240 in emergency accommodation.

Since February 2024, an additional 1,000 people have come to the city from elsewhere in the UK seeking homelessness support.

This influx includes hundreds of migrants granted leave to remain who face a 28-day deadline to find new housing after leaving government-provided lodgings.

The city is using 4,100 of its 6,735 available bed spaces for those awaiting asylum decisions - more than triple what the Home Office recommends.

Allan Casey, Glasgow City Council's convener for homelessness, has written to Immigration Minister Angela Eagle requesting a meeting to discuss the "utterly untenable" pressures facing the city.

The SNP councillor warned that the current system is "damaging social cohesion" in Glasgow.

Despite asylum seekers placing unprecedented strain on Glasgow’s finances, the city’s council topped the list for Britain’s most lucrative fat cat haven, with taxpayers stumping up millions for council chiefs to take early retirement.

Aside from Annemarie O’Donnell, Glasgow City’s ‘director of legal and administration’ Elaine Galletly was the eight highest paid fat cat in 2024, pocketing £333,767 of taxpayer money.

This was made up of her £50,731 salary, £59,971 for compensation for loss of office, and a staggering £223,065 pension payout.

Peter Duthie, Glasgow City’s ‘chief executive officer, Scottish event campus ltd’, was the sixteenth highest paid council employee in 2024, taking home £284,810.

Glasgow top ten fat cats' full earnings breakdown

In total, the council employed 42 people on salaries of over £100,000 per year, one of the highest numbers of all of Britain’s local authorities, while residents suffer bill hikes and cost of living pressures.

Conservative shadow cabinet secretary for finance and local government Craig Hoy said: “Years of SNP Government underfunding of local authorities have resulted in savage cuts to services and steep council tax rises.

“And Glasgow, under the Nats’ control, is one of the worst examples.

“So it will stick in the throat for Scottish taxpayers, who are facing inflation-busting bills, when they see council fat cats raking in huge sums while essential services go to pot.”

The research into Britain’s top fat cats, conducted by the Taxpayers’ Alliance, found 3,906 council employees in the UK received more than £100,000 in remuneration last year (salary, bonuses, compensation and pension payments).

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Top ten council fat cats across Britain 

This is 801 (26 per cent) more than 2022-23's figure. The research also found 1,092 council employees received at least £150,000 in total remunerationlast year.

238 council employees earned more than Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s salary of £172,153.

In 2023-24, the local authority with the most employees receiving at least £100,000 in total remuneration was Westminster with 73 staff, 13 more than the previous year.

Westminster also had the most employees receiving at least £200,000 in total remuneration with eight.

Bromley, City of Edinburgh, City of London, Essex and Wandsworth all had seven employees receiving at least £200,000 in total remuneration.

Burnley was the only council which had no employees receiving over £100,000 in 2023-24.

A spokesperson for Glasgow City Council said: “Every local authority in the country would agree that it is important that genuine taxpayers can access accurate information on executive pay and other aspects of council spending.

“That is why we already routinely publish the data.”