2:10pm Monday 13th October 2008
By Matt Smith
TOP council chiefs in Southampton are being recommended pay rises of up to 13 per cent, the Daily Echo can reveal.
That could mean some bosses receiving as much as £13,000 extra per year.
The latest proposal for the city’s 22 chief officers comes after frontline workers were offered only a 2.45 per cent rise and while the country is gripped by a credit crunch.
Unions and campaign groups have today condemned the proposals, and warned that local taxpayers will end up footing the massive salary bill.
The council’s five executive directors, who are already on salaries of more than £100,000, stand to get the biggest increases, backdated to April.
They include executive director of communities, health and care, John Beer, who takes home more than £115,000 and is currently pushing the controversial plan to close two council care homes, partly to save cash.
Also among the top officers recommended to receive the biggest rises is the head of the city’s education service, Clive Webster, who currently earns more than £105,000.
Chief executive Brad Roynon, who takes home more than £150,000, could get a rise of up to 3.5 per cent under the proposals.
Unions say that the pay plan is making a mockery of the Government’s 2.45 per cent offer for frontline workers which has provoked mass walkouts.
The proposals were put forward by the council’s head of organisational development as part of a two-yearly review.
A report requesting the backing of councillors said: “Maintaining a reasonable position in the pay market is important for the council to continue to be able to recruit good officers for key senior management roles.”
The council’s employment and appeals panel, made up of seven city councillors, will decide whether to grant the rises – which would cost an extra £68,769 a year – on Wednesday.
Unite branch secretary Mark Wood said: “I’m sure our members will be pretty outraged by it, especially considering the restrictions by Government on local government workers’ pay.
“It’s obviously going to cause a lot of ill-feeling among the workforce.”
Mark Wallace, campaign director of The Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “These proposed pay increases send out a very arrogant message that local taxpayers are being taken for granted.
“With everyone caught in the credit crunch these proposals must be rejected.
“It would be frankly obscene for senior council officers to cash in even more while everyone else suffers. It seems that there is one rule for the senior officers and another for frontline staff and taxpayers.”
Christine Melson, the Hampshire co-founder of the Is it Fair? campaign, calling for council tax reform, said: “These chief officers already enjoy huge amounts of pay. Their pay increases will also put up the pension contributions from the council.
“Such pay increases are bound to lead to higher council tax bills to fund these elite wages.”
The average householder living in a band D property currently pays £1,368.24 a year in council tax, of which £1,174.47 goes to the city council.
Councillor Jeremy Moulton, in charge of drawing up the council’s new budget, said: “I would like to look at increases for the council’s senior managers very carefully.
“It’s important we pay competitive rates to get good people. It’s a big organisation and we need to pay market rates.
“However, the financial situation is tight, and many people are getting below-inflation rises.
“I would like to look very carefully at what increase each officer is getting to ensure that it is fair and appropriate.”
Total remuneration packages for 2006/2007 shown.
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