Osborne to review senior council staff wages

Chancellor George Osborne will review the wages of senior council staff, after an investigation found that nearly 3,500 earned more than £100,000 in 2013-14.

The Taxpayers’ Alliance examined a number of freedom of information requests to ascertain that in 2013-14 3,500 senior council staff were earning over £100,000 a year, 10 of whom were earning over £300,000.

Some of those earnings came from large redundancy pay offs, pensions and bonuses.

In response, Osborne told the Daily Mail that he plans to issue new guidance to local authorities on wages and press on with payoff caps in the public sector.

Osborne said: “I intend to issue new guidance sending a clear signal to public sector employers on pay and terms – setting out what I, and I suspect most taxpayers, see as unacceptable.

“What this shows is the scope that remains for savings at a time when budgets need to be trimmed. We’re determined to do all we can to rein in excess where we find it.

“So we will claw back redundancy payments for high earners who leave and then return to the public sector within a year – and change the law so that public sector payoffs are capped at £95,000 even for the highest-paid public servants.”

Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TPA, said: “Local authorities that are providing more for less and delivering council tax cuts clearly have talented people at the helm, but taxpayers living in poorly performing areas will be furious at the scale of some of these massive pay awards.

“After more than a decade of reckless spending and council tax hikes, local politicians now have to make necessary savings and the pay and perks for the town hall elite have to come under the spotlight.

“We all deserve to know how our money is being spent, and taxpayers should have the right to decide if they are getting value for their money from public servants.”