Council chiefs ignore calls to cut their salaries

The axe is being taken to all local council spending, except it seems, when it comes to cutting the boss’s salary.

A report in the Times revealed that only seven of the 129 town hall chief executives earning more than the Prime Minister have taken a pay cut.

Communities Minister Eric Pickles wrote to council leaders more than six months ago urging those earning more than £150,000 to reduce their salaries by 5%, and those on more than £200,000 to take a cut of 10%.

It came at a time when sweeping cuts aimed at tackling the country’s burgeoning deficit, had already frozen pay for all local government staff. Another pay freeze is expected this year and tens of thousands of staff will be made redundant, but according to the recent research just two chief executives earning more than £200,000 have agreed to a pay cut.

Grant Shapps, Pickles deputy said: ‘‘It’s disappointing that so many who enjoy six-figure salaries are not leading from the front in these tough economic times.’

The revelations follow the Bureau’s findings last year that more than 9,000 public sector workers are paid more than the Prime Minister.

Our research, in collaboration with BBC’s Panorama, provided the most detailed analysis of government salaries ever undertaken and revealed that it is not only council chief executives taking home top salaries.

Related article: Public Sector Rich List

In all there were 1,500 staff in town halls earning more than David Cameron, and 71 councils paying ten or more people over £100,000.  These high earning employees cost the taxpayer more than £245m a year.

Our research also revealed that many council bosses received pay rises last year despite the dire economic conditions and expected cuts to their budgets.

The news that these swollen salaries are still being paid will fuel the anger already raging across the country about the level of cuts being made to local services such as libraries and sports facilities.

But the government has a problem – in many cases it does not have direct control over public sector salaries. Pickles can advise town hall bosses to take a pay cut, but as he is finding he cannot force one through.

Ministers had hoped that by taking a 5% pay cut themselves and forcing all public bodies to publish details of high earners it would make those at the top think twice about the size of their salaries. So far, it seems, the named are not being shamed.