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The Town Hall Rich List 2012
We have now published the Town Hall Rich List 2012, which contains some startling revelations about executive pay in local government. It’s the sixth year running that we’ve calculated the information and this year we have identified 3,097 council employees earning over £100,000; that’s a record number, despite the public sector pay freeze. Even once we accounted for the very generous taxpayer-funded redundancy packages enjoyed by some staff, council chiefs still, on average, enjoyed a pay rise of nearly 2 per cent. We've built a clever little tool which allows you to type in your post code to find out what senior council employees in your area are being paid. We'll be opening up more of our data in the coming weeks, so do keep an eye on our website.
As ever, various groups tried to discredit our research but Chris Daniel, the report’s author, dispatched their hollow spin in his latest blog. The Town Hall Rich List was covered by a wide range of newspapers, radio stations and featured in television reports. David Cameron also responded to our findings during Prime Minister’s Questions after Andrew Griffiths MP raised his concerns about the “exorbitant salaries” detailed in the report. Highlights of our media coverage include: Emma Boon on BBC Radio 5 Live (26 mins in) and ITV NewsRobert Oxley appeared on more than a dozen local BBC Radio Stations Daily Telegraph: Record number of council staff paid over £100,000 a yearDaily Mail: 3,000 town hall staff earn more than £100,000 and 52 earn more than £250,000 as salaries boom despite cutbacks Evening Standard: Austerity? 627 London town hall council officials get more than £100,000The Sun: More fat cats in town haulThe Scotsman: Rich list’ shows 7-figure pay deals for city officialsAnd dozens of local newspapers including the Northern Echo, the Express and Star and the Nottingham Post. |
Pin-up and Pinhead of the month
Today we announced the latest recipients of our Pin-Up and Pinhead of the Month awards for those in power who have sought to do the right – and wrong – thing by the taxpayer. Our Pin-Up of the Month is Cllr Heather Caird, the Leader of Chichester District Council, in recognition of the fact that hers is the only local authority in the UK that has fully funded its pension liabilities. Our latest research into the Local Government Pension Scheme showed that every other council’s pension assets are significantly outweighed by its liabilities. Our Pinhead of the Month, meanwhile, is Cllr Peter Martin, the Leader of Essex County Council, who has been attacking the use of Freedom of Information (FoI) requests by his local newspapers. He is clearly sore after FoI requests exposed the hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money that has been spent on booze and lunches at Essex County Hall, but that’s all the more reason for us to defend and celebrate their use . Attacks on FoIs are an attack on the accountability of politicians and how they spend taxpayers' money. Many of the requests cover information that councils should be publishing anyway: if they did so, they would cut down on the number of requests that they receive in the first place.
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Responses to our report on Medicine Use Reviews
Last week we released research that exposed the £67 million subsidy given to pharmacists by the NHS for Medicine Use Reviews (MUR). Our report has caused quite a stir, especially within the pharmacy community itself. We have had dozens of pharmacists get in touch by email supporting our call to scrap this waste of taxpayers’ money. Here are just a couple of comments we’ve received: “I support your claim that MURs are a waste of taxpayers’ money completely, no matter how much the "chiefs" of the pharmacy world in the UK try to purport that it is not. I have worked in community pharmacy for five years - 90% of the patients I am 'forced' to give MURs to are patronised by the very nature of the service. .....an affront to the medical profession - as if doctors cannot explain to patients why they are on a certain medication!!! Too ridiculous for words….Find me a single patient, just one, who values this so called MUR - a patient that can genuinely say they have benefited from this service. Scrap the service immediately”. “Speaking as a practicing pharmacist, I agree 100% with your report highlighting the millions wasted on MURs. The large multiples put a great deal of pressure both financially and otherwise on employees to ‘hit’ the target no. of MURs. To keep the area manager off your back in many cases it is simpler to target easy ones, that is look for patients who are not confused, or elderly, and who are on simple prescriptions. Elderly or confused patients, on complicated drug / dosage regimes are ‘left well alone’.” Do let us know your thoughts on MURs by emailing us at info@taxpayersalliance.com
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Grassroots
Grantham Action DayTomorrow, Saturday 28 April, TPA activists will be in Grantham collecting signatures for our petition calling on the Chancellor of the Exchequer to abandon plans to increase Fuel Duty by 3p a litre. We will also call on him to commit to a further reduction. If you would like to join us tomorrow, please let National Grassroots Coordinator, Andrew Allison, know. What: Grantham Action Day Where: Near the Market Cross, Market Place, Grantham When: 11:00am, Saturday 28 April Nottingham Action DayFollowing our very successful action day at the end of March, we will once again be out on the streets of Nottingham. The City Council is the only local authority in England not to publish online its spending above £500, something David Cameron referred to at Prime Minister's Questions this week. We will continue to collect signatures for our petition calling on the Council to reverse this decision, and let taxpayers know how their money is spent. If you would like to join us, please let Andrew Allison know, or alternatively register your attendance on this Facebook page. What: Nottingham Action Day Where: Old Market Square, Nottingham When: 12:00 noon, Saturday 12 May
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Best of the blogs
Our newest grassroots blogger, Kathy Walker, questioned how much Richmond Borough Council was spending on consultants telling them how to save money. If you'd like to blog about local taxpayer issues, please do get in touch. Meanwhile, Devon County Council’s potentially dangerous decision to switch off the lights in Exeter to save money came under fire from Tim Newark. Wednesday was a day for rich lists as, on top of our own Town Hall Rich List, we looked at the Department for Education's newly-published survey of head teacher pay. Finally, in the latest Non-job of the week, Andrew Allison tried to understand why we're paying for a temporary Healthy Lifestyles Referral Officer.
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