20.02.13
TPA calls for lower pay for senior staff at councils
Councils should cut the pay of senior staff, the Taxpayers’ Alliance has urged, since more than 28,000 council staff get more than £50,000 a year.
This cost almost £1.9bn last year and represents a drop of 3,991 staff on the previous year, with costs down by £270m. However, the Taxpayers’ Alliance suggests this reflected redundancies, which temporarily increased bills.
Local government minister Brandon Lewis: “For too long the senior local government pay bill has spiralled up and up, and taxpayers have been left footing the bill. While I commend those councils taking action, there are still many others failing to get a grip on costs.
“This report exposes the fact that town halls still have massive scope to make sensible savings to protect important front-line services and freeze council tax.”
Matthew Sinclair, chief executive Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers are still paying far too much for bloated bureaucracies that have been established in too many town halls over the last decade.
“Councillors need to insist that their local authority does more to find savings and cut back on staff costs that residents cannot afford.”
A spokesman for the LGA said: “Middle and senior managers make up around 1% of the total local government workforce, which compares favourably with practices elsewhere in the public and private sectors.
“Councils provide more than 700 local services, from fixing the roads and collecting the bins to caring for the elderly and safeguarding children. We need good managers to make sure those jobs are done well.”
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