A former Lambeth Council boss was paid an “eye watering” six figure ‘golden goodbye,’ it has been revealed.

Former strategic director of housing, regeneration and environment, Susan Foster, got an exit package of £126,439 when she left the council last December.

This comes months after the government announced plans to stop huge exit payments when public sector workers leave their jobs by capping exit packages at £95,000.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Liz Truss, said: “It is clearly wrong when people leave public sector roles with massive pay-offs. It incenses the public when they see their hard-earned money used badly like this.”

But a Lambeth Council spokesman said the payment was only made up of £91,107.30 in redundancy, which meant it was below the cap.

He said the the money included £35,331.44 for a payment in lieu of notice, taking the total up to £126,439.

Other senior staff at the council were made redundant before the end of last year, including the former director for strategic programmes, Rachel Sharpe.

She took £84,741 in redundancy.

But Green group leader, Cllr Jonathan Bartley, said Lambeth residents would be shocked senior council management were getting large pay outs.

“Lambeth residents will consider it obscene that the same senior council management responsible for unnecessary and draconian cuts to services which the poorest in the borough depend upon, are receiving eye-watering pay-outs.  The council should come clean about how much is being lost and put a cap on these excesses immediately,” he said.

Lambeth also spent £100,000 more on exit packages than the previous year, spending £2.4m in the year ending April 2019, compared to £2.3m the previous year.

This was down to a management restructure earlier this year, a council spokesman said.

“We completed a senior management review earlier this year, in response to the unprecedented challenges councils face over the next five years, working in an increasingly volatile and uncertain world, with increasing and changing demand for services,” he said.

“The restructure was designed to ensure the council was able to meet these challenges, and to deliver overall savings. A number of staff left the council during this process, which was a key reason for the increase in the amount spent on exit packages in the last year.

“Payments reported in the council accounts were in line with minimum severance arrangements negotiated nationally with Trade Unions, and/or other terms and conditions which are determined locally, in Lambeth,” he said.