A rich-list of Britain’s highest paid chief executives has been unveiled, which puts two bosses in the West Midlands among the highest council earners in the country.
Birmingham City Council boss Stephen Hughes is on £174,209, while Ron Hilton at Staffordshire County Council earns £192,000.
The duo earn salaries similar to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is paid £188,848 a year.
Elsewhere in the region no other chief executives make it into the top fifty, although all command six figure salaries on a par with cabinet ministers.
Wolverhampton City Council chief executive Richard Carr is on £120,000, Sandwell’s boss Allison Fraser earns £139,461 and Dudley’s Andrew Sparke is on £143,748.
Stafford chief executive Dave Rawlings got £109,844 and South Staffordshire’s Rolf Levesley got £100,769, five per cent less than in the previous year. In Walsall, the authority’s chief executive Paul Sheehan earns a salary of £160,000 a year.
Councillor Robert Simpson, deputy leader of Staffordshire County Council, said: “We are one of the largest local authorities in the UK and provide essential services to more than one million people.
“We employ around 30,000 people. We need a chief executive with the right skills and experience and need to pay the going rate for the job.”
Nationally, the highest paid salary in the country is the £240,000 going to Newham Council chief executive Joe Duckworth, with another five breaking the £200,000 barrier.
The figures were defended by the Local Government Association (LGA), which said chief executives could double their salaries in the private sector. Paul Coen, LGA chief executive, said: “A chief executive at a big council could earn on average over twice as much in a public or private organisation of a similar size.”
20 Comments
Let them go to the private sector then, they’re no use anyway. Lets have someone who really wants to make a difference and isn’t in it for the money. Advertise the post at half the salary, include an IQ test in the application and there would still be a line of applicants who could no doubt do a better job.
And the reason they don’t work in the private sector…….they wouldn’t get away with doing sod all and year on year delivering increasingly poor services!!!
Granted that salaries need to higher in the public sector to attract the best people for the job. The problem is that none of the above mentioned can really justify their salaries.
I just waiting for all the usual Midlander comments to start appearing on this site, condeming this in their usual inimitable ways.
A lot of people will tut and shake their heads at this story, but as usual, nothing will ever change.
Now let’s get this right. Civil servants always justify their ‘gold-plated’ final salary pensions by telling us they earn far less than the private sector and could earn more by working in real businesses.
That flies in the face of the comment here:
We need a chief executive with the right skills and experience and need to pay the going rate for the job.”
So they want juicy salaries AND juicy pensions?
Ahh…I get it…they’re taking us all for a ride. After all, it’s easy when it’s other people’s money.
New Labour….new disaster. Thanks a lot.
AND don’t forget all the tax free incentives, bonuses and expenses which takes them to nearly double that rate, No wonder were in a recession with these civil servants getting it all before our people who need better services, but like always said nothing will change, they see us as mugs and treat us accordingly.
Just to clarify, yes, perhaps they could all earn bigger salaries in the private sector (unlikely) but they would have to perform in thr real world that we work in, in their world they do not, and cannot.
Frankly they would not last five minutes
Brassneckery of the highest order. Credit crunch anyone?
Firmly agree with comment #1. That would be a good scheme to pilot.
I wonder if Sandwell’s Chief Executive, Allison Fraser, enjoyed her trip to Florida; if you recall she was attending a course to help her to like herself!
waste of space the lot of them ,i would not even mind if they had the hard job of keeping the country afloat BUT they are payed more than PM and they do nothing but sign form`s all day .
Nothing surprises me anymore.
this country needs someone to walk out of the darkness and say enough is enough,we’re crazy here letting councils do what ever they like while us the hard pressed taxpayers just do nothing to stop this daylight robbery,about 80k a year thats about fair.
IT’S NO WONDER SOME OF THE PEOPLE IN THIS TOWN DON’T WANT TO GET OF THEIR BACKSIDES FOR MINIMUM WAGE, BETWEEN THEM AND THOSE WHOSE WAGES ARE SO FAR ABOVE THE EFFORT THEY PUT IN I GIVE UP.
In a recent survey it was found that public servants are actually earning more than they would had they chosen to work in the private sector. Meanwhile most of us have to struggle to make ends meet - I’m sick of certain people excusing their extravagance at our expense.
what exactly are their qualifications that might interest us all.
Just a point to note, Staffordshire went through a massive (money wasting) job evaluation, causing many people to loose thousands from there wages. Wouldnt make a huge dent from near 200,grand but from 18000, its the mortgage not being payed on time. However all council directors and councillors were exempt from this…….
Sandwell’s boss Allison Fraser earns £139,461, and is worth every penny.
They wouldn’t print my real opinion, so I had to make this comment..
Jim of Bearwood.
These salaries are nothing unusual,the trend now is to get as much as possible for doing as least as possible without being accountable to anyone.
This is prevelant in all our services. You really need to be rogue to prosper.
Look at all the bandits in the banking world that will get away with murder in the name of capitalism.
Re. comment number 13: Which survey was that, John? Thanks.
If all these salaries were halved,the savings made, could give us our fire service back in SEDGLEY. it only costs £200k per year to save lives.
On Sunday 12th October 2008, it was a lovely day so I decided to take our two grandchildren up Warley Woods.
Its been much publicized the millions of pounds that was spent on that project, and all the work that was done for that money.
I have to say I was most impressed by what I saw, I thought I would have to travel to France to see what the Somme looked like, yet here was a perfect reproduction of the Somme in the children’s play area.
I am sure using this play area will help children to get interested in our history.
There were holes so full of mud that they made the area look like the trenches, the slide was covered in muddy water so if the kids wanted a mud bath, here was the chance, two of the swings missed the play area completely and were installed about 30 foot outside the children’s play area, but that didn’t matter because they were so damaged that they couldn’t be used anyway, oh, and they obviously run out of chain when they were installing them as they were about 3 foot off the ground, just the right height to smack into the top of a child’s head.
Sandwell’s boss Allison Fraser earns £139,461, and I think your worth every penny Allison.
Jim of Bearwood.