County Hall fat cats facing salary cuts

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has pledged to rein in senior public sector pay and bonuses in a bid to cut £3billion from the cost of running Government.

Salaries above £150,000 and £50,000-plus bonuses could require ministerial approval in the future.

Top earners would also be publicly identified and bodies that wasted public cash “named and shamed”, he said.

Essex County Council chief executive Joanna Killian is thought to earn between £240,000 and £250,000, although the authority refuses to publish her exact salary.

Despite criticism from the Taxpayers’ Alliance and the county’s MPs, the county council defended the sums it pays to senior officers.

David Finch, Essex County Council cabinet member, said: “Setting an arbitrary limit for pay at a national level flies in the face of local democracy and fails to take into account the responsibilities of a certain job.

“Decisions such as these should be taken at the local level and decided by local politicians who are fully accountable via the ballot box to local people.

“Nor does Essex County Council waste money, as is being hinted at by the Prime Minister’s comments – we run an extremely tight ship.”

He said Mrs Killian had helped to deliver £90million of savings in the past two years and would oversee a further £300million of savings over the next three years – allowing rises in council tax to be kept low.

Mr Finch added: “The Prime Minster would do better to stop playing cheap party politics and concentrate on delivering what people actually want precisely, like Essex County Council is doing.”

The Prime Minister, delivering a speech called Smarter Government, said money that should be spent on services had gone on excessive salaries and unjustified bonuses and top earners should be publicly identified.

He said some public bodies had “lost touch” with reality and it was unacceptable that 300 local council officials were paid more than £150,000.

He continued: “Of course, public service is admirable and important and it deserves fair reward, and we must never forget that our priority is excellence at the front line.

“In the wider public sector, some senior pay and perks packages have lost sight of this goal and lost touch with the reality of people’s lives.

“Money which should be spent on health, on schools, on policing and on social services is, in some cases, going on excessive salaries and unjustified bonuses, which are far beyond the expectations of the majority of workers. This culture of excess must change and will change.”

Essex County Council employs three people who earn above the £150,000 threshold.

Two of them earn between £150,000 and £160,000 and one, the chief executive, earns between between £240,000 and £250,000.

Suzie Squire, of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, welcomed moves to curb chief executives’ pay, but said the PM’s words must be backed up by actions.

She said: “There is no doubt public sector pay, especially for chief executives, is way out of control, but the Government has allowed this to happen.”

Colchester MP Bob Russell said: “There are certainly obscene salary levels, but none of them compare with the even more obscene payments that Premier League footballers get.

“However, to make a serious point this subject requires, I feel salary levels throughout the UK have widened dramatically and that has been to the detriment of low income earning families.

“It is one of the reasons why I support a higher rate of income tax for people who earn a higher salary.”

Douglas Carswell, Clacton and Harwich MP, also welcomed moves to cut chief executives’ pay, but said it should not be up to ministers to decide.

He said: “Fat cats in the private and public sector need to realise they can’t continue to take home these vast pay packets at our expense.

“But these proposals are the wrong way of doing it. The £150,000 threshold will not really affect anyone in our area.”

The MP added it should be up to Parliament to oversee the salaries, not ministers.