Under-fire council chiefs body, SOLACE, has dismissed as ‘nonsense' claims by housing minister, Grant Shapps, that it is responsible for inflating chief executive salaries.

In a joint letter to The MJ this week, SOLACE chair, Derek Myers, and Rich Benton, chair of SOLACE Enterprises, sought to refute Mr Shapps support for allegations – published in The Daily Telegraph newspaper – that egraph chief executives are using ‘sleight of hand' to award themselves pay increases.