The start date and salary of the new Harrow Borough Council chief executive have been announced.

Earlier this month Michael Lockwood was appointed to the position, which he previously held April 2007 until November last year, when the role was scrapped by the then Conservative administration.

Today his annual salary has been confirmed as £160,596, which is a reduction of more than £22,000 on the previous pay for the role.

He will begin his new job at the authority the end of January next year.

When he left his role last year, Mr Lockwood received a severance package consisting of a compensation payment of £30,000 and Local Government Pension Scheme lump sum payment entitlement of £138,651.

Under the new terms of his re-appointment he has opted out of joining the Local Government Pension Scheme, which will save the council around £32,000 a year.

Leader of the council David Perry said: “Harrow Council is about to launch a major regeneration plan which could potentially put £1.7bn of investment into the area, and I want a commercially astute chief executive who can manage a project on this scale, as well as managing the organisation through £75m of budget reductions.

“Harrow Council is also faced with resident and staff satisfaction at an all time low and I am confident that now stability has been achieved we can collectively work to remedy this. 

“Michael Lockwood is a widely respected figure for his work at managing local authorities and his recent high profile role in leading on finance and policy at the Local Government Association.

“Michael’s commitment to Harrow and the council is illustrated by the fact he is taking a pay cut to return to his old job.

“One of Michael’s early tasks will also be to carry out a restructure of senior management at the council which will save us further significant sums.”

He added the re-appointment of a chief executive is an investment which will pay for itself.