Flood victims have slammed fatcats at the Environment Agency as it emerged they have raked in nearly £12million in pay in the past decade.
Its chief executive Sir James Bevan, 60, earns £210,000 a year – more than the Prime Minister’s salary.
Meanwhile, thousands of Britons have seen homes and livelihoods washed away and are asking whether highly paid Agency bosses can do more to help.
The Agency’s latest annual report shows four directors trousered up to £675,000 worth of salaries between them last year while over the past decade, directors shared nearly £12million.
Agency chair Emma Howard Boyd gets £100,000 for a three-day week while deputy Richard Macdonald got £25,201 last year for doing five days a month.
The quango also has members who sit on various committees who earned £3.7million in total over the past decade.
Insurers says large-scale floods cost nearly £800million in payouts since 2010.
Suzanne Stankard, whose home in Mytholmroyd, West Yorks, was flooded, said the Agency put just one row of sandbags over a gap in flood defences.
She said: “We just watched the water flow over them. They are not in touch with what needs doing. Yet when you’re on £210,000 a year, you can’t be touched.”
Pam Webb’s home and spa business in Fishlake, South Yorks, were badly damaged in last November’s floods. She said: “There was a risk to life. Anyone paid that amount of money clearly has to take a lot of responsibility.”
Union GMB said: “The Agency hasn’t had the finance it needs to put in place measures to mitigate or deal with the flooding. But apparently it has the finance to keep the top brass well paid.”
Sir James this week said the Agency is spending £2.6billion from 2015 to 2021 on new flood defences and £1billion on existing ones. The Agency said it “remunerates employees in line with standard public sector pay and pension policies”
