Tonight:
4°c
I met the chief executive of Islington council just before Christmas and immediately took to him. He was a commonsensical northerner who talked about the urgent need for the Government to allow councils to keep the construction industry in business by building social housing.
He will probably never talk to me again but I think his £160,000 salary should be cut, as should the salaries of the chief executives of Wandsworth (£240,000), Westminster (£230,000), Kensington and Chelsea (£220,000) and all the other councils where public service has become a path to riches.
They might accuse me of "gesture politics". What difference would it make to the taxpayers funding Westminster council's overall expenditure of £945million if its chief executive's pay went down? Practically there would be no effect but psychologically it would matter enormously. The current crisis is so severe it feels like wartime. People expect equality of sacrifice. As unemployment rises and the demands on the taxes of those in work go up, those at the top must lead by example.
Although I admire the Government's determination to protect the economy, politically Labour has blundered by not responding to popular anger at what the speculators have done. Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling should have been on TV thundering that they would stop any bank taking public money from paying a penny in bonuses. MPs should have imitated the US Congress, hauled in CEOs and shamed them. The Serious Fraud Squad should have gone into the City.
What applies to the private sector applies equally to the public. Council tax will rise by three times inflation this year, after all but doubling under Labour. Councils will struggle to meet the cost of social breakdown. To maintain support they need to assure their residents that they will watch taxpayers' money with puritan fanaticism.
The junkets and non-jobs must be scrapped and resources concentrated on front-line services. So must the pay packages that give municipal functionaries higher salaries than the prime minister. In banks, Whitehall or town halls, anything goes in good times. As long as the money is still flowing, few care about extravagance. When the climate turns colder, everyone cares - and private gain at public expense becomes intolerable.
Reader views (10)
Our council has recently "voted in secret" to increase the salaries of 22 CEOs by 13% the lowest paid will get 14000 per anum rise. What recession ? Two of these CEOs are the CEO Communities and the CEO Neighbourhoods !
- Wills, South Coast
Thank you for this article now all we need to do is to apply it
- Jeanette, Lonson
As an ex local council employee, the laughable fact is these Cheif Executives then hire Consultants to make decisions for them. The wastage in Consultants fees is horrendous. Of course, as they are not on the payroll, the true annual expenditure incurred is very nicely hidden in the figures.
- T.M, UK
Small potatoes compared to the millions paid out to bank bosses who are responsible for the UK's current problems.
- John Buckeridge, Poiters, France
I find it incredible that the chief executives of many London boroughs earn a LOT more than the prime minister himself. I simply dont understand the justification for these salaries, services are continually cut and taxes rising so this is hardly value for money. Wandsworth CEO on 250k what an absolute joke.
- Poppy K, London
Perhaps they will think of reducing there after more and more people refuse to pay the Council Tax. That time is coming whether they like it or not.
- Roger, Surrey
He's already had a massive pay cut.
Last year he earned about $320,000 or Euro 230,000.
This year he'll earn about $225,000 or Euro 172,000.
- W Butler, London, England
One problem is that our main Opposition Party is led by millionaires who do not pressure the Government to send in the Fraud Squad to the City or to cut City Bonuses and salaries. They seem to inhabit the same world as the Bankers and the overpaid Council Bosses and feel that they are getting an average salary compared to Camoron, Osborne and the horde of Old Etonians in the Shadow Cabinet. Perhaps Clarke and Pickles might point out to them that they must do more than visit the run-down working class areas for a photo shoot and instead speak out against Greed,Selfishness and Tax Dodging.
- P Lawson, Ilford England
In a groteque way the inflated slaries of bankers is reflected in the inflated salaries of town hall executives. What an insult that town hall executives are getting huge salaries while most of us are struggling to pay ever rising council taxes. In these critical times there should be voluntary town hall pay reviews and pay reductions - this would be fair and set a good example. How can someone who earns nearly two thousand pounds a year go thumping on self righteously about social housing and be taken seriously?
- Derek, London
It would also help if so-called "cabinet members" on local councils took back some of the decision making that highly paid functionaries seem to have assumed in recent years. Presumably to justify their huge salaries. Democratically elected councillors need to run local government not unelected bureaucrats. The point about local government CEOs earning more than the PM himself is spot on. This is a crazy state of affairs.
- Tony Mcmahon, London, UK
