Chief executives association SOLACE has hit back at the Taxpayers' Alliance annual ‘town hall rich list' which claimed at least 2,525 staff were paid more than £100,000 in 2011-12.
According to the TPA, the number of high paid council executives fell from 2,839 the previous year – a drop of 11%. But despite the national fall, 103 councils saw an increase in highly paid staff.
Hitting back at the figures, SOLACE director Graeme McDonald claimed councils were spending 12.5% less on management – around only 1.5% of their total budgets.
He also claimed incoming chief executives were being paid an average of 8% less than their predecessors, while there had been no national increase in senior pay for five years.
Mr McDonald said the role of a senior manager in local government was complex and diverse, and the sector had shouldered a disproportionate amount of government cuts.
He said: ‘The TPA report fails to acknowledge the success of local government and its staff in these challenging circumstances, and risks driving good managers away from public service.
'As austerity continues, it is inevitable that service provision will need to go through radical changes as the money to pay for them disappears. Local government needs excellent people more now than ever.'
Former Kent CC chief Katherine Kerswell topped the pay list, as her pay packet for the year included her redundancy payment for leaving the council.
Bi-borough council chief, Derek Myers, who runs both Kensington and Chelsea LBC and Hammersmith and Fulham LBC, received the highest payout for the year without a redundancy package, at £266,911.
Chief executive of the Taxpayers' Alliance, Matthew Sinclair, said it was ‘good news' that the number of high earning council staff had dropped ‘although that may only be because many authorities have finished paying eye-watering redundancy bills.'
'Sadly, too many local authorities are still increasing the number of highly paid staff on their payroll, some of whom are given hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation just to move from one public sector job to another. Residents won't be impressed if their council pleads poverty when it is demanding more and more Council Tax, only then to spend it creating more town hall tycoons.'
The survey also found:
