SOME of Britain’s top civil servants and quango chiefs are receiving lucrative perks as annual “housing allowances” worth many thousands of pounds from the taxpayer.

Whitehall did its best last week to hide the extent of the allowances, which in some cases are worth more than £40,000 - twice the controversial subsidies given to MPs.

But it emerged that senior officials at the NHS, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, the Legal Services Commission and Transport for London have quietly amassed the housing perks. There was anger last night that some had not relocated their homes to qualify.

Mark Wallace, campaigns director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, commented: “It’s excessive to be given massive second-home allowances on top of huge salaries and extremely generous pensions.”

David Nicholson, the head of the NHS, claims an annual £37,600 allowance for working away from home - yet he was already working and living in London when he took the job three years ago, so did not have to relocate. Nicholson was head of NHS London, and had a flat in the centre of the city, when he was moved to his highly paid London-based post in charge of the National Health Service in 2006.

According to the Department of Health resource accounts for 2007-8, he received the second-home perk on top of his £215,000 salary.

Bill Kirkup, the NHS associate medical director, who has worked in London since 2005, claimed a second-home allowance of up to £25,800 last year.

Officials say that both Nicholson and Kirkup receive the allowance because their “main homes” are not in London. Nicholson has a house near Harrogate, North Yorkshire.

Initially, an NHS spokesman claimed that Nicholson received the allowance because his appointment was based in Leeds.

The department later confirmed he was based in London, but said he was entitled to the allowance because he was “working away from home”.

Health officials say allowances should be used only to pay rent and other costs. Yet Nicholson’s £37,600 housing perk could comfortably meet the annual repayments on a £500,000 interest-only mortgage. It is more generous than the benefits typically on offer in comparable levels of the private sector.

Most companies offer relocation packages for senior executives but not an annual allowance for a second property.

Nicholson, who was a member of the Communist party in his early years as a health official, has told parliament that he intends to “squeeze the pay bill in the NHS”.

Stephen O’Brien, the Tories’ shadow health minister, said: “Why is it that NHS bosses think it is acceptable to award themselves generous perks like second-home allowances and inflation-busting pay rises while hard-working nurses are being forced to take what is effectively a pay cut of 1.9%?”

The existence of a second-home allowance has previously only been declared by central government for high-flyers lured from abroad.

Chan Wheeler, an American who was recruited from overseas as a commercial director at the NHS, was paid an allowance of £90,000. He has since left the NHS.

Public accounts detailing the remuneration of senior civil servants in other Whitehall departments do not show such large benefits. This means either that they have not been claimed or, as with Nicholson, they have never been declared. A Cabinet Office spokesman was unable to say how many other civil servants were receiving second-home allowances.

The QCA, the exams watchdog, offers generous second-home allowances. Ken Boston, the Australian boss suspended after last summer’s Sats marking fiasco, was recruited with a £50,000-a-year allowance.

The Sunday Times established last week that Andrew Hall, now the QCA’s acting chief executive and director of strategic resource management, received £43,400 last year for his accommodation in London. The QCA said he had received the allowance because he was coordinating the move of the organisation to Coventry and already had a home in the Midlands.

The Legal and Services Commission pays a similar taxable benefit. One executive, who has since left, received £40,800 in benefits, including a taxable allowance for accommodation. The commission refused to give further details.

Transport for London says the benefits for its senior officers can include payments for “temporary or medium term accommodation”. A spokesman said he was not aware of it being claimed by British executives. Tim O’Toole, the American managing director of London Underground, claims the allowance.

Additional reporting Roger Waite

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