HIGHWAYS ENGLAND PAY

That this House is concerned that while Highways England management are telling staff in pay bands one to eight that they cannot have a pay rise above one per cent, that a Freedom of Information response has revealed a huge increase in senior grade staff earning above £100,000 with a total of 63, the vast majority of whom are male, earning basic salaries in excess of £100,000 with a total pay bill of £8,537,715; notes that Highways England’s predecessor organisation, the Highways Agency, only paid six people salaries in excess of £100,000; further notes that when civil servants working for the Highways Agency were transferred from the civil service into Highways England, they were told that one of the benefits would be flexibility on pay, as they would no longer be subject to public sector pay caps; believes that these latest figures highlight that staff were grossly misled and that the only people benefiting from pay flexibility in Highways England are senior management themselves; recommends that as Highways England is a Government-owned company of which the Transport Secretary is the sole shareholder, that the Government should intervene to ensure that the vast majority of Highways England staff are no longer subjected to one per cent pay rises; and further calls on management to negotiate a fair pay raise with the trade unions and reward the hard-working staff with pay rises that meet the cost of living.