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David Cameron's plans to cut senior salaries in the public sector are unlikely to hit council chiefs, according to SOLACE. Under proposals unveiled last week by the Tory leader, no public sector manager should earn more than 20 times the salary of the lowest paid in their organisation. But SOLACE director general, David Clark, claimed few chief executives would be hit by the plan. ‘Chiefs are not the overpaid fat cats that some more rabid commentators seem to believe,' he said. A potential salary cap, given the minimum wage, is expected to be in the region of £211,000 – ‘an income that the average chief executive can only dream of,' according to Mr Clark. Writing in a national newspaper this week, Mr Cameron pledged to set up a review of public sector pay, and tackle ‘unfair pay policies' if he won the general election. He said: ‘We are already committed to pay transparency and accountability, but I think it is time to go further…. If we win the election we will set up a fair pay review to investigate pay inequality in the public sector.' This week, a senior police official also waded into the public sector salary debate by claiming he was overpaid. Sir Norman Bettison, chief constable of the West Yorkshire police force, said he was ‘not worth' his own £213,000 annual salary and pension entitlement. Sir Norman waived a generous performance bonus last year and believed inflated salaries in the public services were symptomatic of a misguided strategy of offering large salaries to staff in order to compete with the private sector. He argued that devoted public sector professionals should do their jobs for less – and warned generous salaries in the sector currently encouraged a high degree of turnover, and short time periods in office. Many staff, Sir Norman said, got ‘a remuneration package never dreamt of for their few short years in post'.

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WHITEHALL

Tory plans to slash senior pay 'unlikely to hit chiefs'

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