Last week communities secretary, Eric Pickles vowed to tackle soaring council management payoffs – dubbed ‘golden goodbyes' – by promising secondary legislation to eliminate the need for authorities to hire a designated independent person (DIP) to remove a head of paid service or chief executive.

‘It is ridiculous that councils feel forced to give bumper payoffs to dismiss inadequate chief executives simply to avoid these unnecessary "golden goodbye" reviews from expensive lawyers,' Mr Pickles argued.