The ‘vilification' of public servants risks driving considerable talent out of local government, former president of chief executives' organisation Solace, Jo Miller, has told The MJ.
Social media pressures, changes to employment rights and the Taxpayers' Alliances annual salary survey have all added to a climate where council chiefs are treated as ‘second-class citizens'.
Speaking ahead of her move to New Zealand to take up the top job at Hutt City Council, the outgoing Doncaster MBC chief defended her colleagues, but said there was a ‘real issue about the profession'.
She continued: ‘The pension rules, whereby you are actually taxed on a benefit you may never get because you might die before you get it, is going to lead to people leaving the profession.
'People aren't going to work for less.
‘The vilification of public servants on social media or the buffoonery of the Taxpayers' Alliance stuff, coupled with the removal to the rights that everyone else has because you are in the public sector … I'd say, at the moment, public servants are being treated like second-class citizens and you can only go into it if you are prepared to put up with that.'
Claiming councils had ‘more money than ever' or that £350m would be ploughed into the NHS after Brexit was just ‘gamified lies' from national politicians
She added: ‘Each of those lies chips away at trust … and I think that's how you have a breakdown in cohesion and a breakdown in society.
‘But we can bemoan the national leadership vacuum or seize the opportunity it presents.
'Now is the time like never before for leadership across all places, and all sectors, to be even more brave, bold and fearless in pursuit of the betterment of their places and people.'
