After pay rise of 15%, council executives say: We want more

Published 20th Feb 2010

Pay awards for council executives on six-figure salaries have rocketed an average of 15 per cent in two years - but they still want more.

The disclosure comes as tens of thousands of public sector workers face the dole, council taxes soar and public services face cuts.

Now senior council officials are demanding a 1 per cent rise - despite the imposition of a wage freeze.

Around 20,000 local authority workers face the sack in the next 12 months, while unemployment is expected to rise in the summer.

Former public sector workers are expected to make up most of the new jobless in the next six months.

But that has not stopped councils from giving executives massive rises.

Unions are also battling to stop an anticipated wage freeze for senior council officials who are demanding a further one per cent rise.

ACAS, the conciliation services has been called in to broker a dispute.

A spokesman at the Local Government Association said no council bosses would get pay rises this year.

But he added, ‘We are not in a situation where the salaries of a few chief executives are going to save tens of thousands of people’s jobs.

‘Councils have been placed in a very difficult position and will look to do everything possible before looking at redundancies.’

Demand for council services had soared since the recession while income had gone down, he said. Many councils were planning low council tax rises in recognition that residents were struggling.

The Local Government Employers (LGE), the bosses’ organisation, has also expressed fears about a public backlash if it raises pay further.

The organisation said it was ‘concerned about the message that an increase for this relatively well-paid group would send to council tax payers, many of whom are having to cope with the consequences of pay freezes, reduced working time or redundancy’.

Local authorities have refused to collectively publish all salary details of staff for fear of public reprisals against those at the top.

Ministers have also resisted demands to force council workers to disclose their pay and perks, insisting that the right balance had to be struck between privacy and the public’s right to know.

Only those earning more than £150,000 will be named while the posts of senior staff on more than £50,000 a year will be disclosed.

However gold-plated pension packages will be kept under wraps after agreement with the government that this information would be too ‘personal and sensitive’.

Information made available by individual councils perhaps points to why they want to cover up the figures.

Suffolk County Council’s boss Andrea Hill earns £220,000 a year – more than the Prime Minister. Her salary is 18 per cent higher than two years ago. Kingston-upon-Hull’s chief executive Kim Ryley earns £213,162, 13 per cent up on 2007.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council is paying its chief executive £195,000 - £50,000 more than its last boss, a rise of 34 per cent in two years. The city is planning a council tax rise of 2.89 per cent this year.

And Wokingham borough council’s boss enjoys a salary of £157,000 a year, 17 per cent more than the £134,666 paid two years ago.

Many councils are still drawing up plans to cut staff in anticipation of a spending squeeze inflicted by whichever party wins the election. Birmingham City Council expects to lose 2000 staff while Nottinghamshire could shed 1,500.

Areas of large unemployment, such as Glasgow and Cornwall, are also planning redundancies for 1000 and 600 staff respectively.

A survey of council bosses, however, shows that more than half (51 percent) believe that cuts would bring ‘real opportunities’ to improve working practices.

Research shows that town hall executives admit that their work ethic is slovenly and could do with a boost.

A survey from the Institute for Leadership and Management found that over half (51 per cent) are looking forward to ‘more creative solutions to service delivery’.

Cuts could also improve team work, deal with ineffeciency and manage out poor performers, bosses admitted.

Source: ' Daily Mail '

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