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Sir Michael Bichard has set a challenging agenda of making efficiencies across the public sector. Given the past decade's experience, there is no doubt local government will achieve its targets. However, in my view, there is a subject in the public and media eye – that of public sector pensions – which Sir Michael could highlight as one way of making high levels of efficiency savings. It is widely reported how the public sector receive ‘gold-plated' pensions, while private sector employees struggle to get a reasonable deal – bank senior management excepted! I must be on an island in the centre of England, because I do not see any gold-plated pensions being given by district councils. At Stratford on Avon DC, we require a pay-back period of two years' maximum to allow an early retirement, including redundancy payments, if applicable. This is hardly excessive, and very much based on the business case of a proposal. Notwithstanding that, the proportion of cost associated with pension payments in the council budget does continue to increase, as people are living longer. This backs up that often-heard phrase when coming across a retired local government colleague, ‘How much younger you look since you left!' At the risk of feeling the wrath of civil servant, health and police colleagues, I cannot help but wonder why there is not a single public sector pension covering central government, local government, health and police. In terms of efficiency, having one organisation administering the pension scheme would surely save a fortune of taxpayers' money in ‘back-office' costs. That would be before we looked at harmonising the scheme. If all the schemes were based on the local government scheme, imagine the billions of pounds which which could be saved in time alone. Only one set of regulations to enact, with a reduction in the myriad of consultations, significant increases in contribution for public sector employees outside local government... the list would go on. But why does the cynic in me feel there is no chance of this happening? Probably because the impression given is that senior civil servants and Members of Parliament would never want that level of reduction in benefit – for a start, would they be willing to contribute up to 10% of their salary to their pension, as is being proposed for local government? Perhaps it is best to leave that answer to you. Paul Lankester is chief executive at Stratford-upon-Avon DC

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WHITEHALL

District View

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