Cheshire East’s latest £143k chief

Joining the long list of highly paid execs at Cheshire East Council, Ashley Hughes is the new finance boss – on an annual salary of £142,951.

He takes over from interim head of finance Adele Taylor – appointed on a temporary basis in June 2024 on a daily rate of £1,100. Increasing the council’s indebtedness even further, the council had to pay a whopping £198 a day for the recruitment agency plus, what is described as, ‘other role costs including pension, apprenticeship levy and other transaction fees’.

Eight candidates had applied to join the Cheshire East gravy train.

You’ll probably have noticed but these guys move around the country with regularatory – hiking their remunerations to ever more excessive levels. Mr Hughes had been director of resources and S151 at Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council since April 2023. Between 2020 and 2023, he was the assistant director of finance and deputy S151 officer at the London Borough of Barnet.