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Scotland's council chief executives have agreed to a pay freeze, to help face the tough times ahead. The symbolic move was in recognition of the ‘colossal' financial pressures facing public spending in Scotland. Scotland's 32 chief executives have joined Scotland's council leaders in not accepting a pay increase for the coming financial year. It means the final year of a deal agreed in 2008, which would have given chief executives a 2.5% pay increase from April 2010, will no longer take place. Tom Aitchison, chief executive of Edinburgh City Council and chair of the Association of Local Authority Chief Executives (ALACE) in Scotland, said the move reflected a growing consensus across local government on the depth of financial challenges ahead. The group also called for tough measures to minimise the threat to jobs and services. It mirrors a commitment already made by council leaders to give up any pay increase for the year ahead. The announcement came less than a month after Scotland's, auditors warned that councils faced a budget squeeze which could not be met by efficiency savings alone. Deputy auditor general, Caroline Gardner, warned public bodies were facing ‘the greatest financial challenge since devolution'. She said: ‘Difficult decisions and new approaches will be needed to find other ways to increase efficiency and reduce public spending.' COSLA's HR spokesman, Cllr Michael Cook, said council chiefs hoped their move would be replicated across the sector. ‘The testing times both now and which lie ahead are such that leadership counts and chief executives have shown genuine leadership which, we trust, will set an example to others,' he said. ‘It is significant that the political and executive leadership of councils has recognised the unprecedented challenges which lie ahead.'

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FINANCE

Chiefs agree pay freeze

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