06 March 2009
By Alex Klaushofer
Council leaders have responded to the growing political pressure about their salary levels by publishing figures to demonstrate they are paid less than their private sector counterparts.
According to research by the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers, released this week, the average county council chief executive earns £169,271, while someone responsible for running a company of similar size could command up to £7.818m.
The salaries of heads of unitary councils in England and Wales average £135,481, while pay in private sector companies with similar numbers of employees ranged from £277,000 to £1.564m, the study found.
The research follows an announcement by local government minister John Healey last week that the government intends to legislate to force councils to publish details of senior executives’ remuneration.
‘Recently, we’ve seen senior council salaries spiralling and some councils changing their top managers like premiership football clubs, sometimes with big payoffs for failure. This can’t go on,’ Healey said. The minister added that the level of disclosure required from councils should be brought into line with that required from senior executives in central government.
‘That’s why I’m going to legislate so that councils make public what top earners get in pay, bonuses, pensions and any special perks,’ he said. ‘This will put a big brake on the spiral of pay and perks. It will make councils think harder about the top pay decisions they take.’
But Solace director-general David Clark denied that local authority chief executives were overpaid. ‘It is not true that salaries are spiralling out of control,’ he said. ‘These are big, complex organisations and you want the most competent people to do those jobs.
‘The average shire county council, for example, employs 22,000 people. If that was a private sector job, they would be paid three times that income.’
But Local Government Association chief executive John Ransford said: ‘It is right that chief executive pay is subject to public scrutiny. Councils need talented people in top management positions, and in deciding salary levels they have to balance this with other policy objectives, including the need, in a tight financial situation, for all salaries to be demonstrably reasonable.’
A spokeswoman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said a consultation on appropriate levels of disclosure would be announced soon.
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