England’s most well-paid academy leader breaks the �450k barrier

The remuneration of England’s best-paid academy superhead rose again last year, to break the �450,000 barrier for the first time.

Sir Dan Moynihan, chief executive of the Harris Federation, saw his pay and benefits increase from £440-£445,000 in 2017-18 to £450-£455,000 last year – a rise of at least £5,000 or somewhere between 1.1 and 3.4 per cent, the chain’s newly-published annual accounts show.

With an additional £50-£55,000 in employers’ pensions payments in 2018-19 (the same as the previous year), Sir Dan’s pay, benefits and pensions packets is, for the first time, clearly at least half a million pounds.

The increase looks roughly in line with inflation, then. But the fact that his remuneration went up at all, despite Harris having been one of nearly 150 academy trusts to have been challenged by the government to justify any salary above £150,000, seems another interesting commentary on the influence – or lack of it - of regulation.

The latest figures were revealed as Harris, as it had done last year, left it to the final hours of yesterday’s accounts-publishing deadline to disclose its annual financial statements on its website.