The top-paid council bosses are earning hundreds of thousands of pounds from taxpayers, a 'rich-list' of local authority salaries has revealed.

The figures which relate to the 2021/22 financial year show that East Renfrewshire chief executive Lorraine McMillan received a salary of £124,250 and expenses of £3,197, while Julie Murray, the chief officer of the integration joint board received a salary of £115,279.

The joint-third highest paid on the list, meanwhile, were Mark Ratter, the director of education and Andrew Cahill, the director of the environment, who both had a salary of £113,575.

All four top earners had more than £21,000 in pension contributions.

Next up on the list in East Renfrewshire was Margaret McCrossan, the head of accountancy (chief financial officer) who had a salary of £101,528.

Deputy chief executive Caroline Innes, who has since retired, and chief social worker Kate Rocks were also named, with salaries of £94,793 and £92,650 respectively.

But the totals are far below the UK's richest council post, in Guildford, which has a salary of more than £600,000.

In all, there are 2,759 officials in the UK earning more than £100,000, of which 721 received more than £150,000. 

Westminster council alone had 50 of these highly-paid employees and of the ten local authorities with the most employees receiving more than £100,000, eight were in London. 

In total, the figures showed that Scotland had 246 council employees who are on more than £100,000.

The "town hall rich list" was compiled by the TaxPayers' Alliance (TPA), who have the lowest possible grade for financial transparency by the campaigning and journalism website OpenDemocracy.

Questions have previously been raised about the group's connection to 55 Tufton Street, London, where regular meetings take place between right-wing think tanks and groups backing the Leave campaign in the Brexit referendum.

The low-tax TPA linked their list to the cost-of-living struggles across the country and said council tax rises should be halted and "wasteful spending" cut.

A spokesperson for East Renfrewshire Council said: “We are absolutely focused on delivering the best services possible for our residents and, like all councils, have made significant efficiencies in recent years.

"In Scotland the salaries for local government chief executives are set nationally and are based on an assessment of the role and responsibilities and the required skills and qualifications.

"Senior management salaries are then set as percentage of the salary of the Chief Executive.

"During these extremely challenging times, it is more important than ever that we have highly-skilled leaders helping us to ensure the council adapts and continues to deliver our vital frontline services as best as we possibly can.”