Council chiefs defy cuts call with £6.2m pay

The capital's council bosses took home £6.2 million in pay last year despite government calls for them to accept a 10 per cent pay cut.

Chief executives received a total of £6,236,455, including their basic salaries plus various bonuses. Only one of them earned less than the Prime Minister's £142,500 salary, despite demands from Eric Pickles, the Communities and Local Government Secretary, for their wages to be slashed.

There has been a six per cent increase in the number of council staff across London paid more than £150,000. The figures were uncovered by Green Party Assembly member Darren Johnson, who today said it "beggars belief" that chief executives continue to receive such high wages.

The figures reveal that the amount taken home by council chiefs in London fell by an average of four per cent compared with the previous year.

However, when performance bonuses and supplementary payments are included, it emerged that 12 of the executives actually received more money.

A number of councils have committed to reducing their wage bills as the cuts continue to bite. Hammersmith & Fulham's chief executive Geoff Alltimes received a total of £225,785 last year.

He is set to retire this month and the borough will now share a chief executive with Kensington and Chelsea council, saving tens of thousands.
Lambeth's Derrick Anderson collected £215,963.

Seven chief executives saw their pay increase last year including Tower Hamlets' Kevan Collins, whose pay went up five per cent from £177,413 to £186,528.

Grant Shapps, the local government minister, said: "While we welcome the downward trend in pay it is deeply concerning a group of councils in London are bumping up the already sizeable pay packets of their chief execs.

"These local authorities are massively out of step with the tough economic climate we are in." Four councils - Wandsworth, Newham, Waltham Forest and Barking and Dagenham - hired new chiefs last year and cut pay.