Hampshire councils ‘ignoring economic reality’ and paying staff too much

Despite the economic downturn latest figures show the number of staff taking home more than £50,000 rose by more than half at one council.

The number of high earners at Hampshire County Council rose by almost a quarter over 2007/8, from 744 to 916.

The figures, complied by the Taxpayers Alliance from annual accounts, showed one only council in the country – Birmingham – employed more.

Staff on total pay packages over £50,000 at Southampton City Council rose from 140 to 188, or 34 per cent, and at New Forest District Council from 17 to 26 – a whopping 53 per cent.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, a low tax pressure group, said: “In the private sector thousands of people are losing their jobs, yet councils are better staffed and better paid than ever.

“Councils are ignoring economic reality and simply recruiting more managers and handing out more pay rises than taxpayers can afford. Council tax bills are cripplingly high, and town halls must change their ways to bring the bill down.”

The Alliance has warned of a growing and costly class of council bureaucrats and middle managers increasingly resembling a new breed of “fat cats”.

It said the number of people earning more than £50,000 in the private sector has increased by just over three times over the past decade, but had rocketed more than ten-fold in the local authorities. Residents have seen council tax bills double over the same period.

Mark Wood, branch secretary for Southampton’s Unite union said: “Our members on lower pay will be very unhappy when they see more and more managers receiving large amounts of pay while they are struggling to make ends meet.”

Unison regional officer Andy Straker said: “The vast majority of local government employees earn far less than £50,000.”

The Daily Echo revealed last year the jobs that made up the high earners among the county council’s wage bill.

Most of them were teachers with heads and deputy heads – some earning up to £100,000 – swallowing up much of the cash.

As well as chief officers, directors, heads of service and middle managers, the jobs also included inspectors, advisors, technical managers, psychologists, coroners, IT consultants, and customer service managers.

Hampshire County Council leader councillor Ken Thornber, said the figures related to less than 2.5 per cent of the total 40,000 workforce.

He said it was inevitable that over time the county council would employ more people on higher salaries.

“It is not that we are recruiting more people to the higher salary bands, it is that we are providing staff with nationally negotiated cost of living pay increases, so you would expect the numbers to increase more each year,” he said.

New Forest District Council said it did not recognise the figures and insisted the number of staff with “basic pay” over £50,000 had remained at 17.

Southampton City Council said it would be “inappropriate to comment” until it had properly verified the figures but insisted it looked “very carefully” at staff wages to make sure the taxpayer got best value.