The subject of highly paid Council Chief Executives is back in the news with a report in The Daily Telegraph of correspondence between Councils and central Government on the matter. Some councils have argued against disclosure on the grounds that there could be "personalised attacks and mischief making." The CEOs children could be teased at school. The Taxpayers Alliance, who uncovered the objections via Freedom of Information requests, rejects such this as "emotional blackmail." My own view is that high paid chief executives may well represent value for money – but they should be accountable for the amount they are paid. In the private sector you can reasonably respond: "None of your business." The public sector is different.
Anyway there seems to have been some back tracking by the Government. The Telegraph reports:
Council bosses were expected to list the names and salaries, as well as pensions, perks and pay-offs, of everyone paid more than £50,000 a year. They have since persuaded ministers that they should only have to disclose the full details of staff earning in excess of £150,000 a year. They will list the number of staff and the job titles of those employees earning more than £50,000, but no further details.
Rather than tens of thousands of local authority workers having their salaries published, just 114 council staff, most of them chief executives, will have to disclose their pay.