15 February 2011
Council chief executives earned an average of £147,934 last year, according to the first analysis of senior staff pay in local government.
Income Data Services looked at chief executive pay in more than 300 councils in England and Wales, using information from accounts filed by councils for 2009/10.
It found that 43% of chief executives received over £150,000 in salary and fees last year, more than the prime minister’s 2010 salary of £142,500.
Nasreen Rahman, principal researcher at IDS, warned that calls for pay restraint in local government were likely to continue.
‘With nearly half of all local authority chief executives earning more than the prime minister, clearly, in the current climate, town hall bosses will be facing tough questions from council taxpayers.’
But the survey also found that basic salary rises for the majority of senior executives had been relatively modest, averaging at 2%. A large proportion also went without an increase.
The highest chief executive pay was in the London Borough of Wandsworth, where remuneration totalled £299,925 and included a bonus of £54,702 covering an 18-month performance period. Gerald Jones, chief executive of Wandsworth for 24 years, retired last October.
The highest paid female chief executive was Joanna Killian at Essex County Council, who received total pay of £237,000.
The survey revealed little sign of gender bias, finding that although female chief executives were in a minority in local government, they did not always suffer a pay disadvantage. Female chief executives working in London boroughs, metropolitan districts and unitary authorities tended to be paid slightly more than their male counterparts.
Examining chief executive pay by region revealed that county council chief executives in the Southeast were the highest paid, with average pay of £204,162, while those in counties in the Southwest earned the lowest with average pay of £158,988.
District council chief executives in the Southeast were similarly best off, with average pay of £117,884, while the bosses of Northwestern districts earned the lowest with average pay of £103,812.
Rahman said: ‘For the first time, such a comprehensive picture of local authority senior executive pay is possible because of the new disclosure regulation brought in last year, where local authorities have to give more salary information on their top-paid officials.
‘This report allows local authorities to compare the rates of their senior executives against each other.’
