WANTED: Fat cat to run council. Big salary guaranteed. Would suit a former Bond villain who is no longer interested in world domination and wants a quiet life in the shires instead. You have to hand it to the Taxpayers' Alliance. They certainly know how to whip up a media frenzy and get the necessary tabloid headlines. The group's town hall rich list boasted 578 local government figures, who they claim are all earning more than £100,000 and in some cases pocketing more than £200,000 – more than the Prime Minister – as some newspapers were keen to point out. The pressure group's report revealed that the total pay bill for the 578 senior staff stands at £72m, with an average salary of £125,000. ‘Town halls need to get a grip and cut back on gold-plated salaries,' said Alliance chairman Andrew Allum. ‘Or they will find that council tax quickly becomes the new poll tax.' But councils were quick to highlight the inaccuracies of the Alliance's report. According to the report, Surrey CC chief executive Dr Richard Shaw earns an annual salary of £207,000, which makes him the fourth highest on the pressure group's list. ‘Dr Shaw receives a significantly less than the amount quoted,' a council spokesman says. ‘And is therefore not among the top 20 local government earners.' The spokesman said the chief executive's salary band has a maximum of £179,000. He adds that the council boss is also responsible for an annual budget of £550m and 20,000 staff. The county council provides public services for 1.1m residents and maintains 52 libraries, 414 state schools and 3,000 miles of public highway. ‘Under Dr Shaw's leadership, the council has saved more than £50m in efficiencies and reduced the number of senior posts it operates,' the spokesman adds. ‘This is not achieved without considerable experience and knowledge, and any senior council officer would earn considerably more – often double – for an equivalent role in the private sector.' For Nev Wilkinson, a managing partner of recuitment firm Rockpools, it is a simple case of supply and demand. ‘People want good services from the town hall,' he says. ‘Therefore you have to pay for it. ‘Local government chiefs manage complex briefs with multimillion pound budgets and have huge responsibities for managing services which benefit the communities in which they operate. ‘If you compare their roles with senior ones in the private sector, you'll find that taxpayers actually get a very good deal.' Mr Wilkinson points out that chief executives can be responsible for health and education and often play key roles in dealing with emergencies, like the 7 July bombings in London in 2005. They also work much longer hours than the report suggests. ‘They are not the old jobsworth, old-style town clerks,' he adds. ‘I would be surprised if any chief executive works 35 hours a week. Most of them have evening meetings or they are out doing partnership work. It's more like a 60 hour week. ‘The bottom line is this: If the public sector wants to attract the very best individuals with outstanding skills and abilities, then they are going to have to pay the going rate.' It is worth remembering that the Alliance published its list after making Freedom of Information requests to 230 local authorities. A spokesman for Surrey CC said an average FOI request takes 10 hours to process and costs £25 an hour in administration charges. By Surrey's own mathematics, the total cost of processing all of the FOI requests submitted by the Taypayers' Alliance for this one report is around £110,000 – not bad for a group dedicated to cutting public expenditure. n
