Leave our salaries alone, council chiefs warn ministers

18 Oct 10
The head of the trade union for council chief executives today condemned the government for interfering with senior pay awards.
By David Williams

18 October 2010

The head of the trade union for council chief executives today condemned the government for interfering with senior pay awards.

The comments came after the chief executives of two Conservative-led county councils agreed to 5% salary cuts following pressure from Communities Secretary Eric Pickles.

Mary Orton, secretary of the Association of Local Authority Chief Executives, told Public Finance that all decisions on executive pay should be taken locally, rather than dictated from the centre. ‘Mr Pickles likes sound bites,’ she said. ‘He says his priority is localism – but part of localism is that it is for elected councillors to decide pay levels, because they’re accountable to local residents.’

Last week, it was announced that Joanna Killian, of Tory-dominated Essex, and Kevin Lavery, of Cornwall, which is run by a Conservative-independent coalition, would cut their £247,000 and £200,000 annual pay packets respectively.

Orton said the pay cuts had been agreed amicably and not imposed by councillors.

‘Essex County Council has traditionally been the highest payer in local government,’ she said. ‘It is now wanting to move closer to the centre of the pack.’

She added that Cornwall’s move was a gesture of ‘economic solidarity with a deprived part of the country’.

But the pay cuts are less than Pickles recommended. He told the Conservative Party conference earlier this month that any council chief earning more than the prime minister’s £142,500 salary should take a 5% cut, and those on more than £200,000 should knock 10% off their pay.

Orton added that the prime minister’s total package includes two free homes.

Stephen Greenhalgh, the Conservative leader of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, told the BBC that ‘no-one’s salary is safe’.

Suffolk County Council has also come under pressure to cut executive pay after local MP Daniel Poulter raised the issue with David Cameron in Parliament. Suffolk council chief executive Andrea Hill is paid £218,000 a year.

Cameron responded that he supported pay restraint and warned that Pickles would keep up the pressure on local authorities.

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