Council boss earns more than PM

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."