THE amount of taxpayers’ money paid to the departing chief executive of the council’s struggling property management company will not be made public.

Hassett Auguste stepped down from his position at Ascham Homes in November following concerns over the company’s performance.

Government targets to bring homes up to a basic standard of decency have been missed and the company lost a series of legal rulings which meant it could not charge leaseholders for works carried out on blocks of flats they share with council tenants.

This forced the council to bail out the company with a £5 million contingency fund.

Mick McGough, one of the leaseholders who successfully fought the company over the dispute over charges, submitted a request to Ascham Homes under the Freedom of Information Act asking how much Mr Auguste's departure has cost.

Mr McGough said: “This information really should be in the public domain.

“On the basis that the taxpayer has already paid £5m for the works and more than £100,000 in legal fees, we can't draw a line under the issue until we know the total costs of the debacle.”

Ascham Homes said the Data Protection Act prevented the company releasing the information.

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