Property-related civil servants feature in a list of the government’s highest earners published today by the Cabinet Office.

The names of 170 mandarins earning more than £150,000 were released today, including Richard McCarthy, director general of housing and planning at the Department for Communities and Local Government, and Joe Montgomery, its director general of regions and communities. The publication is part of the coalition’s drive t introduce transparency over public sector pay.

McCarthy earns £175,000 – £179,999 , while Montgomery and Property Unit chief executive John McCready both earn £150,000 – £154,999.

Other top earners involved in property include:

Alison Little, chief executive of Buying Solutions (£150,000 – £154,999)

Nigel Smith, chief executive of the Office of Government Commerce (£185,000 – £189,999)

Marco Pierleoni, chief executive and chief land registrar at HM Land Registry (£170,000 – £174,999)

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude, who will chair a new Public Sector Transparency Board, said: “We are pulling back the curtains to let light into the corridors of power.  By being open and accountable we can start to win back people’s trust.

“Transparency is key to our efficiency drive, and will enable the public to help us to deliver better value for money in public spending.”

Yesterday, prime minister David Cameron wrote to all cabinet members with a list of the information on spending that he wants published by central government. It includes:

• All new central government tender documents for contracts over £10,000 to be published on a single website from September 2010, with this information to be made available to the public for free;
• New items of central government spending over £25,000 to be published online from November 2010;
• All new central government contracts to be published in full from January 2011;

Cameron also made demands over local government spending transparency, including:

• New items of local government spending over £500 to be published on a council-by-council basis from January 2011;
• New local government contracts and tender documents for expenditure over £500 to be published in full from January 2011.

To read the list of top civil service earners, click here: Civil Service High Earners

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